Ongoing duties | Help and support

What aren’t I allowed to do and what happens I don’t comply?

Alex Marshall — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 15:58:17 +0000

The auto-enrolment obligations are set out in legislation and The Pensions Regulator is responsible for ensuring compliance with the rules. So to make sure you’re not breaking the law, it’s a good idea to make yourself aware of the main things you mustn’t do.

You mustn’t:
– Encourage employees to opt out or give up active membership of the pension scheme – this is known as ‘inducement’
– Coerce employees to opt out of the pension scheme
– Discriminate against employees seeking to join a pension scheme
– Take or fail to take any action that leads to an eligible employee ceasing to be an active member of a qualifying scheme, or that results in the pension scheme, of which they are a member, ceasing to be a qualifying scheme
– Operate prohibited recruitment where a job applicant’s success of getting the job depends on whether or not they opt out.

If you don’t comply, The Pensions Regulator will initially focus on education rather than imposing fines for non-compliance. If you don’t meet your duties, they’ll initially just tell you to put things right. Any further failure may lead to the government fining you a lot of money. In the event of persistent and deliberate non-compliance, The Pensions Regulator can issue escalating penalty notices of up to £10,000 a day. And, ultimately, you could face criminal prosecution and even imprisonment.

What do I have to do after I’ve enrolled employees?

editorial — Sun, 29 Mar 2015 12:31:50 +0000

Once you’ve successfully enrolled your eligible employees and the joiner information has been sent out, there are duties that you’ll be required to fulfil on an ongoing basis such as uploading your payroll files to pay contributions. You’ll also need to manage employees who join and leave, and those that opt in and opt out.

And every 3 years, you’ll need to re-enrol anyone who has opted out, ceased active membership or is paying below the minimum contribution levels and is an eligible employee. You’ll also need to re-declare your compliance every 3 years – even if you have no one to re-enrol.

What’s re-assessment and how often do I have to do it?

editorial — Sun, 29 Mar 2015 12:41:03 +0000

After you’ve assessed your employees for their auto-enrolment status at your staging or duties start date, you then must monitor their age and earnings for each subsequent Pay Reference Period. They may trigger the requirements to become assessed as eligible and will therefore need to be auto-enrolled. You don’t need to re-assess any eligible employees who’ve opted out, apart from when you re-enrol.