We all know that saving for our pensions is important and when the Workplace Pension requirements came in a few years ago, it was a step forward for employees all over the country.

However as an employer, it may have felt like one more thing to understand, fund and juggle with business as usual (hopefully you had the help of a friendly accountant to take some of the pain away)!

And then it was up and running and you happily put it to the back of your mind.

But did you know that after three years you have more duties to perform? Luckily, we are here to give you the information you need and, if you prefer, we can even do the work for you.

So what are my responsibilities as an employer? There is a bit of detail here so please bear with us

1. You must select a re-enrolment date. This must take place within a six month period, three years after the staging date (also known as duties start date). The six month period begins before the three year anniversary and ends three months after the three year anniversary. Any date can be chosen in that period.

2. Eligible staff need to be identified, re-enrolled and informed individually within six weeks of the re-enrolment date.

Here is a quick overview of what needs to be done

Every 3 years certain employees need to be put back into their company’s Workplace Pension.

Identify eligible employees

Eligible employees are those who have previously left the pension scheme or reduced their contributions to below the legal minimum and satisfy the following criteria:

• aged between 22 up to State Pension Age
• and earns over £10,000 a year, or £833 a month, or £192 a week

If they did so in the last twelve months their employer can choose whether to re-enrol them or not. Prior to twelve months ago they must be re-enroled.

Those staff affected can Opt out again within a month of being re-enroled.

Re-enrolment

The affected employees need to be re-enroled through Xero. Prior to the payroll period that includes the re-enrolment date, Xero require a list of affected employees to ensure they are assessed in the next payrun.

The company’s pension provider (e.g. NEST, The People’s Pension, Scottish Widows) may also need to be informed if they are not automatically updated by Xero.

Inform those affected

Template letters and accompanying information are available to help with this.

If there are no eligible employees, only step 3 below, re-declaration of compliance, is required.

3. You must make a Re-declaration of Compliance within five months of the three year anniversary of the staging date (or duties start date), even if there are no staff to re-enrol. This is mandatory and is completed on the Pension Regulator website.

What next?

You can follow the steps above yourself to complete the re-enrolment process once you get near your 3 year anniversary.

Alternatively, if you would like us to complete the steps for you, please speak to one of the team as we can do that for you