Pension Staging Date for Auto-Enrolment

If you run a small business and have not already received a letter from the Pensions Regulator about your staging date for auto-enrolment then you are likely to recive one soon. In fact 1.5 millon letters are being sent to small businesses. If you are an employer this letter will give your PAYE reference and staging date for auto enrolment. It will also ask for a nominated contact for all future communication with the Pension Regulator.

If you are the sole director of a company with no other employees then you should receive a different letter explaining that you are exempt from auto-enrolment. A full guide to auto-enrolment can be found on The Pensions Regulator website but you should be aware that it sets minimum contributions that employers and employees have to pay into a pension scheme.

• from the employer’s staging date to 30 September 2017 – employers (1 % ) plus employees (2%)
• 1 October 2017 to 30 September 2018 – employers (2% ) plus employees (5%)
• from 1 October 2018 – employers (3 % ) plus employees (8%)

There are detailed rules about notifying employees of the changes and how to deal with the situation if they decide to opt out of the scheme. There is plenty of detail to absorb but doing nothing is definitely not an option. This will happen and there will be penalties for non-compliance, so you either need to understand it yourself or work with someone who will.