Government confirms new staging dates for auto-enrolment
2012-01-25
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has released a revised timetable of staging dates by when employers must comply with the forthcoming pension reforms, including auto-enrolment.
During a work and pensions select committee, pensions minister Steve Webb, confirmed that employers with staging dates on or before 1 February 2014 will be unaffected.
Medium-sized employers (with between 249 and 50 employees) will be given new staging dates between 1 April 2014 and 1 April 2015, pushing back the implementation dates for some of these organisations by up to nine months.
Webb said this will mean around 70% of eligible workers will be automatically enrolled before the end of this Parliament compared to around 75% under the previous arrangements. Small employers (with 49 employees or fewer) will be allocated auto-enrolment dates between 1 June 2015 and 1 April 2017.
Webb said: “Automatic enrolment will begin on time this October, taking up to 10 million people into pension saving, many for the first time ever, and all employers will be part of it.
“We have done all we can to ease any burden on business the reforms will bring and employers of all sizes now know the date they need to start enrolling their staff.”
Kate Smith, regulatory strategy manager at Aegon, said: “Increasing the number of staging dates is a welcome move, which should reduce the operational strain on industry resources. This could make a big difference to how easy employers find it to get any help they need and hopefully make the auto-enrolment process a more pleasant experience for them and their employees.”
The revised auto-enrolment dates are:
|
Employer size (by PAYE scheme size) or other description |
Automatic enrolment duty date |
|
|
† |
From (inc.) |
To (inc.) |
|
250 or more members |
1 October 2012 |
1 February 2014 |
|
50 to 249 members |
1 April 2014 |
1 April 2015 |
|
Test tranche for less than 30 members |
1 June 2015 |
30 June 2015 |
|
30 to 49 members |
1 August 2015 |
1 October 2015 |
|
Less than 30 members |
1 January 2016 |
1 April 2017 |
|
Employers without PAYE schemes |
1 April 2017 |
- - - |
|
New employers Apr 2012 to Mar 2013 |
1 May 2017 |
- - - |
|
New employers Apr 2013 to Mar 2014 |
1 July 2017 |
- - - |
|
New employers Apr 2014 to Mar 2015 |
1 August 2017 |
- - - |
|
New employers Apr 2015 to Dec 2015 |
1 October 2017 |
- - - |
|
New employers Jan 2016 to September 2016 |
1 November 2017 |
- - - |
|
New employers Oct 2016 to June 2017 |
1 January 2018 |
- - - |
|
New employers Jul 2017 to Sep 2017 |
1 February 2018 |
- - - |
|
New employers Oct 2017 |
Immediate duty |
- - - |
Source, DWP.
For more articles on complying with the pensions reforms†
- Author:
- Nicola Sullivan
- Publisher:
- Employee Benefits
- Date:
- 2012-01-25
Comments (2)
Barnett Waddingham generally welcomes the revised timetable, as it means we can now start helping employers plan for their auto-enrolment duties with a good deal more certainty.
The longer phasing period is good news for employers as it will help them incorporate the financial implications of the changes over a longer period and will help with costs if recessionary pressures continue in the short term.
From the employees' point of view, they may be less likely to opt out. However, this change could increase the perception from employees that paying the minimum contribution rates are sufficient.
It also prompts all parties to watch developments as the timeframe spreads into the next government’s period of office. Could compulsory pensions be a feature in the next election manifestos?
We are pleased that some employers now have clarity on their staging date. Larger employers and their advisers were frustrated that they could not plan for auto-enrolment with absolute certainty – although medium-sized and smaller employers are still in limbo, with their exact dates still to be issued.
These dates were one item outstanding; the other is the final regulations, which we understand are imminent. For many employers there is still much to do and time is marching on. For those larger employers that already had projects underway, a delay would have been an annoyance with very little to be gained, although they will welcome the change in the contribution phasing. Those that had not started now know the clock is ticking and they need to get started.
For smaller employers, the delay is likely to be welcomed, particularly given the tough economic climate that they are operating in, and Steve Webb should be credited for listening to the cries from this section of the employer community.