Automatic Enrolment: 8 jobs you should have ticked off within six months of your Staging Date

We’ve already written about why you shouldn’t treat Automatic Enrolment like your tax-return and leave planning to the last minute; the potential fines are just not worth it!

But, how much work should you have completed within six months of your Staging Date?

What jobs should have been completed and ticked off by now and which are still to do?

We’ve pulled together a handy checklist to help answer these questions and more.

Within six months of your Staging Date you should have:

1. Confirmed your Staging Date

2. Confirmed which of your staff are ‘Workers’ as defined by the Automatic Enrolment legislation

3. Confirmed which of your Workers fall into each of the three categories:

• Eligible jobholder
• Non-eligible jobholder
• Entitled worker

and therefore which of your Workers will need to be automatically enrolled into a pension scheme

4. Reviewed your payroll system to ensure it supports Automatic Enrolment

5. Reviewed your employee data to ensure you have all the information you need about your Workers

6. Started to communicate with your Workers to make them aware of Automatic Enrolment and how it will affect them

7. If you have one, reviewed your existing pension scheme to ensure it is compatible with Automatic Enrolment legislation. Will the pension provider allow new members? Not all will, which means you might need an additional scheme

8. Decided on which pension provider you will enrol your workers into

How many did you tick off?

Congratulations if you ticked off all eight. In fact, give yourself a pat on the back, because you are probably in the minority of employers.

On the other hand, if you haven’t started yet, we’d recommend you make a start sooner rather than later.

We know it’s natural to leave things to the last minute, especially when it’s going to cost you money. What’s more we understand many business owners don’t believe complying with the new rules will take so long. But it does, in fact we are working with employers who are experiencing significant problems, precisely because they have put off Automatic Enrolment until it is almost too late.

How can Investment Sense help?

We know many employers are concerned about their Automatic Enrolment obligations and we’re here to help.

We’ve developed a four stage process to ensure your business is compliant by your staging date and sticks to the rules in the months and years to come.

If you:

• Would like to know your staging date
• Have a question about Automatic Enrolment
• Would like to know how you can comply with the new rules

Then get in touch today, to put it bluntly, this problem isn’t going away and your staging date is only getting closer.

We’re here to help, call us on 0115 933 84330115 933 8433 or email info@investmentsense.co.uk