What is automatic enrolment?
Under the Pensions Act 2008, every employer in the UK must put certain staff into a pension scheme and contribute towards it. This is called automatic enrolment.
If your client employs at least one person they are an employer and have certain legal duties.
However, if your client's staff is paid for by an agency who pays the National Insurance contributions, the agency is the employer and not your client.
Does automatic enrolment apply to your clients?
All employers need to work out if automatic enrolment applies to them.
Automatic enrolment duties apply from your client’s duties start date (the day their first member of staff started working for them).
You and your clients can use the step-by-step guide in our Employer's section to find out how automatic enrolment applies to them and what they need to do and by when.
If your client is employing staff for the first time and must put them into a pension scheme, our new duties timeline for employers can help.
Even if your client thinks they won’t need to put their staff into a pension scheme, they still have duties that they need to complete. Your client will need to continue to assess their staff to see if they meet the eligibility criteria for automatic enrolment, write to tell them how they’re affected, and complete a declaration of compliance.
Your client will need to act quickly once their new staff starts working for them, so you should check what they’ll have to do so you can provide support.
What is your role in automatic enrolment?
The role you play in helping your client may depend on the type of adviser you are. They may expect you to help them by simply providing advice or offering a full automatic enrolment service.
Legal responsibility for automatic enrolment lies with the employers but they may ask you to help them.
The automatic enrolment guide for business advisers will walk you through the tasks which must be completed, in order for your client to implement automatic enrolment. These steps will help you decide what services you are going to provide. It is important your client knows exactly what services you will be offering and that you are both clear who will be undertaking particular tasks.
Sign up for email alerts about your client’s duties and deadlines
All employers should nominate an employer contact who will receive important information from us. Your client may want to nominate you as an additional contact.
If you nominate yourself as an additional contact, we'll send you regular emails letting you know what your client will need to do and by when to meet their automatic enrolment duties.
It’s essential that you keep your contact details up to date, so be sure to tell us if these change at any time, eg if someone has moved roles or recently joined. If you don’t receive the relevant correspondence from us, you may miss necessary tasks and your client may risk a fine for failure to comply.
Nominate a contact