Whether they’re enrolled automatically or not depends on how much they earn, their age and whether they normally work in the UK.

If they’re enrolled automatically, they’re known as ‘Eligible jobholders’.

Then there are 2 categories for the employees who can ask to join:

Non-eligible jobholders – you’ll have to pay into their pension pots if they ask to join.
Entitled workers  – you won’t have to pay into their pension pots if they ask to join.

If your employee isn’t eligible but has asked to join, please add them to payroll with an auto-enrolment status of ‘non-eligible’ when you send us your employee data. If you need help you can contact us.

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Further details are available at The Pensions Regulator website.