If a staff member opts out or ceases active membership of their pension plan, the employer’s duties do not end there. Their circumstances may have changed over time, and therefore, the Pensions Regulator requires employers to re-assess and potentially re-enrol their staff into a qualifying pension scheme every three years. This is called cyclical re-enrolment.
The steps that any employer will need to undertake are described below:
Choose a re-enrolment date
Employers do not have to re-assess staff on exactly the three year anniversary of their staging date. They have a six month window within which to do this, starting three months before and finishing three months after the anniversary date.
Therefore, an employer with a staging date of 1 January 2016 could choose a re-enrolment date between 1 October 2018 and 31 March 2019.
Decide who needs to be re-enrolled
At the chosen re-enrolment date, an employer needs to re-enrol any eligible jobholders who:
- Opted out (within 30 days of being initially enrolled);
- Ceased active membership;
- Are in the pension scheme but contributions are below the minimum levels.
- Postponement cannot be used at the re-enrolment date although affected staff are able to opt-out.
The re-declaration of compliance
Following cyclical re-enrolment, an employer is required to complete a re-declaration of compliance.
Completing the re-declaration is a legislative requirement and applies to all employers even if they is nobody to re-enrol.
How can Buzzacott Financial Planning help?
Buzzacott Financial Planning can help any employer plan effectively for these changes.
If Buzzacott are responsible for running your payroll and administering auto-enrolment, the re-enrolment process will be conducted by us using the data within the payroll system. The re-enrolment date would be set as the three year anniversary of your staging date although we would be happy to change this for you to a more appropriate date within the six month window.
If this process is being managed by a third party, they should be dealing with the cyclical re-enrolment. However, you should liaise with them directly regarding whether they can complete every part of the process on your behalf. If not, Buzzacott Financial Planning would be happy to assist.
Rachel O’Donoghue
Partner, Financial Planning team
T : +44 (0)20 7556 1256
E : odonoghuer@buzzacott.co.uk
If a staff member opts out or ceases active membership of their pension plan, the employer’s duties do not end there. Their circumstances may have changed over time, and therefore, the Pensions Regulator requires employers to re-assess and potentially re-enrol their staff into a qualifying pension scheme every three years. This is called cyclical re-enrolment.
The steps that any employer will need to undertake are described below:
Choose a re-enrolment date
Employers do not have to re-assess staff on exactly the three year anniversary of their staging date. They have a six month window within which to do this, starting three months before and finishing three months after the anniversary date.
Therefore, an employer with a staging date of 1 January 2016 could choose a re-enrolment date between 1 October 2018 and 31 March 2019.
Decide who needs to be re-enrolled
At the chosen re-enrolment date, an employer needs to re-enrol any eligible jobholders who:
- Opted out (within 30 days of being initially enrolled);
- Ceased active membership;
- Are in the pension scheme but contributions are below the minimum levels.
- Postponement cannot be used at the re-enrolment date although affected staff are able to opt-out.
The re-declaration of compliance
Following cyclical re-enrolment, an employer is required to complete a re-declaration of compliance.
Completing the re-declaration is a legislative requirement and applies to all employers even if they is nobody to re-enrol.
How can Buzzacott Financial Planning help?
Buzzacott Financial Planning can help any employer plan effectively for these changes.
If Buzzacott are responsible for running your payroll and administering auto-enrolment, the re-enrolment process will be conducted by us using the data within the payroll system. The re-enrolment date would be set as the three year anniversary of your staging date although we would be happy to change this for you to a more appropriate date within the six month window.
If this process is being managed by a third party, they should be dealing with the cyclical re-enrolment. However, you should liaise with them directly regarding whether they can complete every part of the process on your behalf. If not, Buzzacott Financial Planning would be happy to assist.
Rachel O’Donoghue
Partner, Financial Planning team
T : +44 (0)20 7556 1256
E : odonoghuer@buzzacott.co.uk
Learning and development
1
17 December 2020
