Automatic enrolment and small employers

16 June 2016

The Pensions Regulator is highlighting that even if you employ only one member of staff, who is employed on a temporary basis, who earns under the qualifying earnings threshold of £10,000, and who does not need to be automatically enrolled into a pension scheme, you will still have automatic enrolment duties that you need to meet.

“Nobody to put into a pension scheme? You still have duties...” says The Pensions Regulator:

You will probably have seen the large character ‘Workie’ calling on small employers and telling them not to ignore the workplace pension. You may now be wondering what to do next. It’s important that you are aware of what your duties are and when you need to meet them by – as you may incur a fine if you do not comply with the law on time.

Look out for a letter

The Pensions Regulator writes to all employers to alert them to their duties 12 months before their staging date. The staging date is when your legal duties start. Go to TPR’s website and take 5 minutes to complete the online Duties Checker. This will help you understand how the law applies to you and what duties you have to do and by when – and to avoid the risk of a fine.

Are you an employer?

You are an employer if there is a contract of employment – whether this is written or verbal between you and those who work for you. Even if someone who works for you considers themselves self employed, you may still have employer duties.

While deciding if someone is a worker may be clear-cut in many circumstances, it can be more difficult in others. A person may be a classified as a worker if they meet a number of criteria including:

  • whether you expect that person to personally carry out work for you,
  • if you provide what they need to carry out the work (for example tools) ,
  • if you bear financial cost for faulty work.

Once you have decided who is a worker for automatic enrolment purposes, you must then check what your duties will involve and if any of them must be put into a pension scheme.

If you decide you are not an employer (e.g. you are a sole director company with no other staff) and so you do not have duties you should use the Duties Checker to let TPR know this is the case.

If you do not have any workers to automatically enrol in to a pension, you still need to write to them to tell them about automatic enrolment and how it applies to them. Template letters that you can use are available on TPRs website.

Complete and submit a declaration of compliance

Whether or not you have workers who must be put into a pension, you need to complete a declaration of compliance and submit it to The Pensions Regulator to let them know you have met your duties. The declaration of compliance shows TPR what you have done to meet your duties and must be completed within five months of your staging date – if you don’t do this on time, you may incur a fine.

Bringing your staging date forward

If you don’t have anyone who needs to be put into a pension scheme, you can bring your staging date forward to any date, so that you can meet your duties at a time that suits you.

You will need to tell TPR either on or before your new staging date and you’ll need to provide all of the information below:

  • Your PAYE reference - found on letters you have received from TPR about automatic enrolment.
  • Your letter code - a 10 digit reference that appears on all correspondence from TPR about automatic enrolment.
  • Your current staging date and your new staging date.
  • Employer’s name, address (including postcode) and email address.
  • If you have one, your Companies House registration number or equivalent, e.g. registered charity number, VAT registration number or industrial and provident society number.

Complete your declaration of compliance at the same time

You can choose to complete your declaration of compliance at the same time as you bring your staging date forward. Completing your declaration early means you can get this task out of the way and don’t need to think about it anymore.

If you decide not to do this, you must complete your declaration within five months after your new staging date.

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