Employer obligations for automatic enrolment
Every employer with at least one member of staff is required by law to put employees who meet certain criteria into a workplace pension plan and to contribute towards it.
Many workers don’t take up the pension plan their employers offer them. As they risk losing valuable benefits, the government introduced ‘automatic enrolment’ to make it an employer’s duty to enrol all their eligible staff into a pension plan.
Key things you need to do
Employers have a duty to automatically enrol eligible jobholders aged between 22 and State Pension Age into a qualifying workplace pension plan. We've highlighted your key actions, as well as creating a suite of support information.
- Automatically enrol all eligible job holders into a qualifying pension plan. Individuals may choose to opt out, however, every three years, employers must re-enrol jobholders who've previously opted out.
- Within five months of the date that your auto enrolment duties start, or within two months of your automatic re-enrolment date (usually every three years), you’ll have to make an online declaration of compliance to The Pensions Regulator. This will provide information on the schemes being used, and how you're meeting your employer obligations.
- Provide information to your eligible and non-eligible jobholders about their pension plan within six weeks of the automatic enrolment date.
- If you use an existing pension plan to meet the auto enrolment provisions, you'll need to ensure that it meets certain qualifying criteria and continues to do so going forward.
- You'll also have to maintain records of the plans used to meet your obligations, details of automatically enrolled jobholders (including those that subsequently opted out) and voluntary joiners.
- Have a board of trustees that have freedom to switch pension provider where it's in the members' interests. For contract-based plans, the pensions provider must have an Independent Governance Committee (IGC), or a Governance Advisory Arrangement (GAA) for smaller schemes.
- Create a default investment arrangement which is in the members' best interests and keep this under review.
- Ensure essential financial transactions are managed accurately and on time.
- Assess the value of a plan in terms of costs and charges to members.
If you fail to comply with automatic enrolment and employee opt-in provisions, it is an offence punishable by imprisonment for up to two years, a fine, or both.
Get in touch
Workplace pensions
Or you can write to us at Prudential, 121 Kings Road, Reading, RG1 3ES
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General adviser enquiries
Or you can write to us at Prudential, Lancing, BN15 8GB
Lines are open Monday to Friday, 9.00am – 5.00pm, excluding UK bank holidays
Where can you find more information
Find out more information on providing workplace pensions for your staff.
Guidance and resources to help you in your role as an employer, including interactive online tools.
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"Prudential" is a trading name of Prudential Distribution Limited. Prudential Distribution Limited is registered in Scotland. Registered Office at 5 Central Way, Kildean Business Park, Stirling, FK8 1FT. Registered number SC212640. Authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Prudential Distribution Limited is part of the same corporate group as the Prudential Assurance Company Limited. The Prudential Assurance Company Limited and Prudential Distribution Limited are direct/indirect subsidiaries of M&G plc, a company incorporated in the United Kingdom. These companies are not affiliated in any manner with Prudential Financial, Inc, a company whose principal place of business is in the United States of America or Prudential plc, an international group incorporated in the United Kingdom.