Your employee may later decide that they’d like to continue pension contributions and re-join the pension. They can ask to do this at any time, by sending an opt in request to you:

• in writing – but this doesn’t have to be a formal document. It can be a letter or an email.
• signed by the employee submitting it. If it was sent by email, it must include a statement from the employee confirming that they personally submitted the notice.

If the notice is given within 12 months of a previous opt in notice, and your employee has then stopped membership of the pension scheme, you’re not required to add them to the pension scheme, although you can choose to if you’d like.

Similarly, if an eligible employee has opted out and then asks to re-join, you’re not required to accept this more than once in a 12-month period.

Your employee’s enrolment status should be assessed again, based on their age and earnings at the time of their request.

The Pensions Regulator states notices must be kept in their original form for 6 years.

We only need to know about postponement choices if The People’s Pension is being used to assess the workforce.

Staging postponement – an employer can postpone assessing their workforce from their duties start date for up to 3 months.

New starter postponement – an employer can postpone assessing their new starters for up to 3 months.

Eligibility postponement – an employer can postpone enrolling someone who has become eligible for the first time, to cope with spikes in earnings. This makes allowances for those individuals who may only become an eligible employee every now and again and saves the administrative duties associated with frequently changing someone’s status.

Minimum pension contributions have risen in stages starting from 6 April 2018. From 6 April 2019 minimum pension contributions have increased to 8% of employees’ qualifying earnings (3% employer, 4% employee and 1% tax relief; or 3% employee and 5% employer if salary sacrifice is offered).

But if the employee stops active membership and then asks to join again (or leaves and then returns to your employment), they should be reassessed based on their age and earnings.

The regulator’s definition of a director

A director refers to anyone who holds office as a director. Under the Companies Act 2006, a person is viewed as a director if:

• they’ve been formally appointed
• they’re in a decision-making role which relates to the governance of a company as a director (who may not necessarily be formally appointed)
• If a person just has ‘director’ in their job title, this wouldn’t count.

A director would be viewed as eligible for auto-enrolment if:

• they have an employment contract with the company (this can be a written, verbal or implied contract)
• there’s at least one other person who has an employment contract with the company

If an employer chooses to not enrol a director, they’ll still need to communicate to them and complete their declaration of compliance.

A director still has the right to opt in or join a workplace pension. If they make this request, the employer must enrol them (unless they’re in their notice period). If a director is enrolled, the employer’s auto-enrolment duties apply.

For more information about enrolling directors into a workplace pension, visit The Pensions Regulator’s website.

You must:

• Put qualifying employees into a pension scheme and pay into their pension pots
• Provide a declaration of compliance to the Pensions Regulator for the pension scheme every 3 years
• Keep details of all opt outs for 4 years
• Keep specific records for each employee for 6 years.