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About auto-enrolment

When would I use postponement?

There are several reasons you may decide to postpone. For example, it gives you the flexibility to align your administration and payroll processes. It can also help you to offset any contributions for temporary or short-term employees who leave soon after joining your company or reach the trigger for being auto-enrolled just before ceasing employment.

You can choose to use postponement on the following dates:

– your duties start date
– the first day of employment for any new employees who join your company after your duties start date
– the date an employee reaches the trigger to be an eligible jobholder after your duties start date (eg when an employee turns 22 years old).

You must write to tell the employees whose auto-enrolment you’re postponing. You’ll have 6 weeks from the date postponement starts to write to them.

What’s a qualifying pension scheme?

Not all pension schemes are suitable for auto-enrolment. The pension scheme you do use needs to meet certain qualifying criteria, which is why it’s referred to as a ‘qualifying pension scheme’.

If you’ve an existing pension scheme and you want to continue using it for auto-enrolment, you’ll need to check that it meets the qualifying criteria.