Workplace pensions law has changed. Every employer has new legal duties to help their workers in the UK save for retirement. They must automatically enrol certain workers into a qualifying workplace pension scheme and make contributions towards it.

These duties are being staged in over six years, starting with large employers.

All employers will have to provide workers with a workplace pension scheme by law over the next few years. The biggest employers started doing this in October 2012. This is called ‘automatic enrolment’.

When your business must start doing this (called a ‘staging date’) depends on how many people you have on your payroll. Armed with your PAYE reference and the number of employees you have, I can check your staging date with the Pensions Regulator.

If you don’t already offer workers a workplace pension scheme, you must set one up before your business’ staging date.

• You must enrol into the scheme all workers who:
  are aged between 22 and the State Pension age
  earn at least £8,105 a year
  work in the UK

  You must make an employer’s contribution to the pension scheme for those workers.

The regulator will be writing to all employers 12 and 3 months before their staging date, and there is some scope for deferring this date, so contact us for advice.

http://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/index.aspx