Employers approaching their Staging Date can choose to postpone Automatic Enrolment for up to three months, but it is important to note that the Staging Date does not change and you must also ensure that you write to all your staff within six weeks of the Staging Date to alert them of the postponement.
One reason to postpone may be due to an influx of temporary or short-term staff that will not remain in your employ beyond a short timeframe. A good example is seasonal staff employed over the Christmas period. Postponement can also be used to allow you to align Auto Enrolment with your business processes or trading year.
You can postpone enrolment for as many or as few staff as you like. This could be from your Staging Date, a staff member’s first day of employment or the date a staff member first becomes eligible for Auto Enrolment.
During this period, certain members of your workforce can still choose to opt in to your pension scheme, so it is important that the scheme is actually set up by your Staging Date or you may incur a fine from The Pensions Regulator (TPR). Armstrong Watson Financial Planning can offer advice on which pension scheme to choose to meet your needs and help you comply with your duties so please get in touch with us at help@armstrongwatson.co.uk if you need help.
At the end of the postponement period, you will need to check your workforce data again and the staff members that are still eligible to be enrolled should be placed into the pension scheme. If Armstrong Watson processes your payroll then you should get in touch with them to ensure this is done. If not, you can contact them at aesupport@armstrongwatson.co.uk for a quote on an all-inclusive package to take away the burden.
