Auto-Enrolment – Are you prepared?

Individuals are living longer and many are not saving for their retirement at all. As a result, Workplace Pensions Reform legislation was introduced by the Government in the Pensions Act 2008. The Government hopes to attract six to nine million more employees to contribute towards a workplace pension scheme from October 2012 through auto-enrolment.

As of October 2012, employers are required to automatically enrol workers into a qualifying workplace pension scheme. A “worker” is not necessarily an employee although all employees will be defined as workers.

The date by which employers have to comply with the new legislation will depend upon the number of individuals within the organisation’s PAYE scheme as at 1 April 2012 and all employers will be affected by 2017. Those employers with the largest number of workers will be impacted first, with the staging dates and contribution levels being phased in up to October 2018.

However, every employer should be considering the impact of the changes to workplace pension legislation now.

Read the full Insight for further details about the responsibilities of the employer.