Who is this tool for?

  • Employers with existing defined contribution (DC) schemes
  • Pensions professionals advising clients who are running DC schemes
  • Trustees and anyone involved in making decisions about workplace pensions.

What does it do?

It will give you a good idea of what areas you need to look at to help you assess:

  • whether your existing DC scheme qualifies and
  • whether you'll be able to use it for automatic enrolment.

What doesn’t it do?

Because every scheme is different, it is unable to tell you whether your particular scheme qualifies. As the employer, it is your responsibility to satisfy yourself that your scheme can be used under the new laws.

If you don’t have a scheme

You will need to set one up to fulfil your automatic enrolment duties. It's important you choose the right one. We've put together some questions you can ask when selecting a pension product for automatic enrolment, and our website has more information too:

Launch DC qualifying scheme tool

Important note for employers with DB or hybrid schemes

The qualifying criteria for defined benefit (DB) and hybrid schemes is a complex area that this tool is not able to cover. If you have one of these schemes and want to check whether it qualifies, please refer to our 4. Pension schemes guidance (PDF).

Note: In this tool, we use the term 'qualifying scheme', but this is in relation to an individual and the contributions they and the employer are required to make. Your scheme could have qualifying and non-qualifying sections, but provided it qualifies for the worker, you will be able to use it for that worker.

There may be circumstances that are not covered in this tool that could have an impact on the decisions or changes you're required to make. For these reasons, you may need to seek additional guidance or professional advice to ensure that you meet your legal obligations.

Automatic enrolment

© The Pensions Regulator 2013