From 1st October 2017, if you have started a new business and are taking on a member of staff or if you have recently employed someone for the first time, your automatic enrolment duties will have already begun.
Your duties start from the day your employee starts work. You must assess them to see if they meet the age and earnings criteria to be put into a workplace pension scheme, which is as follows:
• aged between 22 up to State Pension Age
• and earn over £10,000 per year or £833 per month
• or £192 per week
If they meet the criteria, you will need to choose and setup an automatic enrolment pension scheme for you and your staff to pay into, to help save towards their retirement.
If you do not have anyone to put into a pension scheme, you’ll still need to write to your staff and tell The Pensions Regulator how you have met your duties.
If you have already received a letter from The Pensions Regulator about automatic enrolment don’t ignore it, you have legal duties to meet!
Automatic enrolment is the law, The Pensions Regulator has lots of useful information online and the duties checker will help you find out what tasks you need to complete and the deadlines involved. Visit www.tpr.gov.uk/newemployers to get to know your responsibilities.
