A guide for re-enrolment & re-declaration

on January 20, 2021

Every three years you must put certain members of staff back into an automatic enrolment pension scheme and tell us that you have done it. This is called re-enrolment and re-declaration. This essential guide explains how you can prepare for re-enrolment as well as re-declaration and it will help you understand your duties. What you need to do will depend on whether you have staff to put back into a pension scheme or not. Re-enrolment and re-declaration are part of your legal duties, if you do not act, you could be fined.

Stage 1: Re-enrolment

Step 1 – Check that you have staff to put back into your pension scheme, next assess your selected staff.

You should do this on the third anniversary of your duties start date or staging date. This is known as your re-enrolment date. You only need to assess staff who have left your pension scheme or have reduced their contributions.

Any staff who are:

  • aged between 22 and state pension age
  • earn over £10,000 a year, or £833 a month, or £192 a week

must be put into your pension scheme and you must both pay into it.

If you have worked out you do not have any staff to put back into your pension scheme, you still need to complete your re-declaration of compliance. Please note postponement cannot be used for re-enrolment.

Put staff back into your pension scheme.

You should do this within six weeks of the third anniversary of your duties start date or staging date. Having worked out who you need to put into a pension scheme that is suitable for automatic enrolment, you must then do so and start paying into it.

If any of your staff choose to leave your pension scheme (opt out) within one month of being put back in, you need to stop taking money out of their pay and arrange a full refund of what has been paid to date. This must happen within one month of their request.

Already past the third anniversary of your duties start date or staging date?

We recommend that you use the third anniversary of your automatic enrolment duties start date or staging date as your re-enrolment date. However, you can choose an alternative date if, for example, you have already passed the third anniversary of your duties start date or staging date. You can do this up to three months after the third anniversary of your duties start date or staging date.

If you choose an alternative re-enrolment date, you should put staff back into your pension scheme within six weeks of this date.

Important: your re-declaration deadline does not change if you choose a different day to the third anniversary of your duties start date or staging date, on which to assess your staff. This means you must complete your re-declaration of compliance within five months of the third anniversary of your duties start date or staging date, regardless of which day you choose.

Step 2 – Write to the staff that you have put back into your pension scheme.

You must do this within six weeks of the third anniversary of your duties start date or staging date or the alternative date you have chosen to assess your staff. It is your legal duty to write to each member of staff you have put back into your pension scheme. You do not have to write to staff that are not being put back into your pension scheme.

Stage 2: Re-declaration

Step 1- Complete and submit your re-declaration of compliance.

You must do this within five months of the third anniversary of your duties start date or staging date. Completing and submitting your re-declaration of compliance is a legal duty to show how you have fulfilled your employer duties for re-enrolment.

You must complete your re-declaration even if you do not have any staff to put back into your pension scheme.

You can start your re-declaration at any time after you have re-enrolled staff, or as soon as you work out you have no staff to put into your pension scheme.

Re-declaration deadline date

You must complete and submit your re-declaration of compliance within five months of the third anniversary of your automatic enrolment duties start date or staging date. Your re-declaration deadline does not change even if you have chosen a later date to assess your staff. Your re-declaration deadline will be confirmed to you by a Pension Regulator regarding re-enrolment and re-declaration.

We recommend that you do not leave your re-declaration until the last day to complete as some information may take time to prepare. If someone is helping you with some of your re-enrolment duties, you need to make sure you know who will be completing the re-declaration. If someone completes it for you, it is still your legal duty to make sure that it is completed correctly and it is submitted on time. Failure to complete your re-declaration could result in you being fined.

Ongoing duties after re-enrolment

Each time you pay your staff you should carry out the following ongoing duties:

  • monitor the age and earnings of your staff to see if you need to put any of them into a pension scheme. You don’t need to do this for staff you have put into your pension scheme and who have chosen to leave the scheme, as you will assess them at your next re-enrolment.
  • pay money into a pension scheme if you have put staff into it.

 

If you have any questions on pension or payroll in general, please feel to give our experienced team a call on 0208 249 6007. Consultation is always free.

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Written by Irina Stucere

Filed under  Blog • Business Advice 

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