As per The Pensions Regulator, the duty to consult applies to you if you are planning either of the following:
Making listed changes to your workplace pension with 50 or more employees*
Listed changes are as follows:
- Increasing normal retirement age
- Closing the scheme to new members (or a class of new members)
- Ceasing or changing members' future accrual of benefits under the scheme
- Removing the liability to make employer contributions to the scheme
- Introducing or increasing member contributions
- Changing the rate of revaluation or indexation where this would be, or would be likely to be, less generous to members
- Changing any final salary benefits to money purchase benefits
- Reducing employer contributions to money purchase schemes
- Changing the elements of pay that constitute pensionable earnings or changing the proportion, or limiting the amount, of any element of pay that forms part of pensionable earnings
*These numbers relate to the total number of employees, not just employees who are pension scheme members. In a multi-employer scheme, each employer who meets the threshold has its own obligation.
For all other cases
As per The Pensions Regulator, you do not have a legal duty to consult. However, we recommend consulting employees anyway, as it informs them of upcoming changes and positions your organisation for success.