How do I prepare for automatic enrolment?
Summary
Automatic Enrolment began in October 2012. As of February 2018 all new employers should have joined a suitable scheme.
This article explains how to enter details of the scheme you have chosen to join to ensure the correct deductions are made from your employees pay.
More Information
You must know which pension provider you have chosen to use to comply with Automatic Enrolment.
Speak to your pension advisor, accountant or seek advice from The Pensions Regulator website.
Pension Scheme Details
Enter details of your chosen pension scheme. Please see How do I set up a pension scheme in Platinum Payroll?.
Classifying Workers
You must look at the contractual relationships you have with the people working for you to ensure those who are considered "workers", as far as the Automatic Enrolment regulations are concerned, are correctly identified.
Platinum initially marks all employee records as "workers", but for any that this does not apply you can remove this classification.
- Go to " Payroll Maintenance Options Add or Edit Employees".
- For all records that are not "workers" according to the Automatic Enrolment regulations, set "Auto. enrolled worker" to 'No'.
Existing Scheme Members
You must also identify all workers that are already a member of a pension scheme.
- For all workers that are already a member of a qualifying pension scheme, set "Scheme joined date" to the date that they joined the scheme. Do not set this date for new employees not already registered with a scheme.
 | It is not necessary for this to be absolutely accurate, as long as it is before your Staging Date indicating that the worker was already a member at that time. |
- If they are a member of the auto enrolment scheme, Platinum will automatically set this for you when closing the first payroll period in which they are included.
- If they are a member of any other scheme, choose the scheme from the drop down menu.
Reports and Information for Workers
One of the employer duties is to provide information to workers, irrespective of the category into which those individuals fall. Every employer will have an obligation to provide certain specific information to groups of their workers within prescribed time limits.
Platinum automatically produces letters containing the information as part of the " Run Payroll". It comes with some basic letters already set up but you should customise them with information specific to your business and chosen Automatic Enrolment Scheme.
Please see How do I Edit my Auto Enrolment Letters? and How do I Add Pension Company Details to my Pension Letters?.
Platinum can also produce a report listing information to give to the pension scheme about eligible jobholders.
- Go to " Payroll Maintenance Options Payroll Settings Report Details End of Period".
- Add the 'pRP - Information to pension scheme' report to your menu.
- Add the 'AUT - Pensions Contributions' report to your menu.
Automatic Enrolment
Whenever you process a payroll period through " Run Payroll", Platinum automatically assesses your workers and enrols them into the pension scheme according to the government rules.
- " Run Payroll" will show which employees are to be automatically enrolled in the "Pension" column.
- It will assign the "Auto Enrolment Scheme" pension scheme to the employee and start making deductions.
- You may choose to postpone an eligible jobholder using the [Postponement] button. You can set the postponement date up to three months after the point at which they first become an Eligible Jobholder.
- When closing the payroll period, you should run all required reports as usual including the 'Pensions Contributions' report and, the first time an employee is enrolled, the 'Information to pension scheme' report.
Opting in or out of a scheme
Please see Opting in or out of a pension scheme for further information.
Declaration of Compliance (Registration)
Automatic enrolment declaration of compliance (previously called "registration") is the legal requirement to submit information to the regulator about how you've complied with your employer duties. Platinum can help provide some of the information you will need.
When you are ready to submit your registration information:
- Go to " Payroll Procedures/Reports Payroll Report Generator".
- Run the 'Pension Declaration Info' report.
See Automatic enrolment registration on The Pensions Regulator website for more information.
Re-enrolment
Every three years you must put certain staff back into a pension scheme. This is called 're-enrolment'.
Your re-enrolment duties must be carried out approximately three years after your automatic enrolment staging date (and every three years after that). Your duties will vary depending on whether Platinum identifies that you have staff to re-enrol, or whether you have no staff to re-enrol.
| Your pension provider should contact you when you are nearing the re-enrolment period to ask you to confirm the date to re-enrol. You must then enter this date within Platinum when prompted to do so. |
- In " Run Payroll", you will be prompted to enter your re-enrolment date from within a six-month window. This starts three months before the third anniversary of your automatic enrolment staging date and ends three months after it.
Once your re-enrolment date has been entered and you " Run Payroll" for the first period that covers it, Platinum automatically assesses your workers and re-enrols them into the pension scheme according to the government rules.
- You will see which employees are to be automatically re-enrolled in the "Pension" column.
- The "Auto Enrolment Scheme" will be assigned to the relevant employees and pension deductions will be made.
- At the end of the period the 'Information to pension scheme' report will provide information to give to the pension scheme about eligible jobholders.
- Once the period has been closed the relevant letters will be printed.
- You must ensure the correct information is displayed and conveyed to your pension provider.
 | If any employees then choose to opt out of the scheme please see Opting in or out of a pension scheme for further information. |
Re-declaration of Compliance
Re-declaration of compliance is the legal requirement to submit information to the regulator about how you've complied with your employer duties. Platinum can help provide some of the information you will need.
When you are ready to submit your re-declaration information:
- Go to " Payroll Procedures/Reports Payroll Report Generator".
- Run the 'Pension Re-declaration Info' report.
- Enter the date that you are submitting your re-declaration of compliance (just press <Enter> to use todays date.)
See Complete your re-declaration of compliance on The Pensions Regulator website for more information.
See also
- How do I set up a pension scheme in Platinum Payroll?
- How do I Add Pension Company Details to my Pension Letters?
- How do I Edit my Auto Enrolment Letters?
- Links to Pension Providers
- How do I run a payroll period?
