How Automatic Re-Enrolment Works

Wouldn’t it be great if you could enrol all your employees into your workplace pension scheme just once and then sit back and think ‘Phew, job done’?! Unfortunately, because of the UK Government’s rules surrounding Auto Enrolment, it’s not quite that simple.

A three-year cyclical process

Auto Enrolment and Re-Enrolment can seem complex, but once you’ve got to grips with it, the process becomes second nature. With Re-Enrolment, you have to remember that it’s a cyclical procedure, and you need to be ready when the time comes for you to re-enrol eligible staff.  Many of the steps are similar to the action required from employers when the original auto enrolment staging took place, but there are some points an employer needs to be aware of:

1: Postponement cannot be used at the re-enrolment date

2: It only applies to certain eligible jobholders who have left a scheme having previously been automatically enrolled or opted in, or have ceased membership of a qualifying scheme.

3: There is one fixed re-enrolment date that applies to all that are eligible.

4: There are several automatic and optional exceptions form the re-enrolment duty.

Employers should be aware, some rules around auto enrolment will have changed since they first underwent their employer duties. Certain individuals no longer require to be auto enrolled or indeed re-enrolled. Company directors and individuals with pension protection are perhaps the most common examples. Understanding who should be included in the re-enrolment assessment is an important part of getting it right.

A six-month window

Your Staging Date is the date that your Employer Duties regarding automatic enrolment first came into effect. Three years after this date is when it’s time for you to re-enrol eligible jobholders. There is a six-month window around this time for you to do it in – that is, three months either side of this date.

You need to make sure your HR, Payroll and software processes are all primed and ready, so you can complete the following four steps with ease:

1: Decide upon which date you’ll re-enrol your employees

2: List the staff members to be re-enrolled

3: On your chosen date, re-enrol everyone on the list ensuring all relevant communications are issued correctly and within the specified timeframes

4: Re-declare your compliance with the regulator to tell them how you have complied with your automatic re-enrolment duties

Once it’s sorted, you can relax then, not having to think about Re-Enrolment for another three years.

If you have any questions at all regarding any of the issues mentioned in this blog, please do not hesitate to contact us.