Pensions
Employers are legally required to offer a workplace pension scheme and auto-enrol anyone who is eligible.
Employees will be eligible if they are:
• Not already in a workplace pension;
• Aged 22 or over;
• Under State Pension Age;
• Earning more than £10,000 a year; and
• Working in the UK.
Employers should provide information about any workplace pension scheme within two months of an employee starting work.
An employer usually does not have to automatically enrol an employee if they do not meet the above criteria, or if any of the following apply, i.e. that the employee:
• has already given notice to their employer that they are leaving their job;
• has evidence of their lifetime allowance protection;
• has already taken a pension that meets the automatic enrolment rules and the employer arranged it;
• gets a one-off payment from a workplace pension scheme that is closed (a ‘winding up lump sum’), and then leaves and rejoins the same job within 12 months of getting the payment;
• is from an EU member state and in an EU cross-border pension scheme;
• is in a limited liability partnership; and
• is classed as a director without an employment contract.
An employer cannot:
• unfairly dismiss or discriminate against an employee for being in a workplace pension scheme; and
• encourage or force an employee to opt out.