Entitled worker

If you’ve been described as an ‘entitled worker’ before, you’re now classed as a type 2 employee. (‘Non-eligible jobholders’ are also type 2, and ‘eligible jobholders’ are now known as type 1 employees.)

The change is nothing to worry about – it’s just one of the ways The Pensions Regulator is simplifying jargon to make it all a bit less complicated.

An entitled worker (now called a Type 2 employee) doesn’t need to be auto-enrolled.

They can ask to join an employer’s pension scheme, but an employer doesn’t need to pay money into their pension pots unless they’d like to.

An entitled worker is:

  • aged between 16 and 74 and
  • has earnings less than the lower earnings threshold (currently £6,240 a year / £520 a month / £120 a week for the current tax year).