Automatic enrolment – when is my staging date?

This is the first in a series of short blogs about automatic enrolment, a new law designed to encourage people to save for their retirement.

Auto enrolment will require all employers to enrol their employees into a workplace pension scheme, if they are not already a member of a qualifying scheme.

It is designed to overcome the perennial problem of employees not joining their workplace pension schemes when these are offered, simply because they do not sign up to receive these valuable benefits.

When is my staging date?

An important first step for every employer is to identify their ‘staging date’. This staging date is the date from which employees are subject to auto enrolment.

This date is based on the size of their payroll and employer reference. It can be found by visiting www.tpr.gov.uk/staging which is on The Pensions Regulator’s website.

For employers, the identification of this staging date is important because it creates a timetable of activities before and after the staging date, with which the employer must comply.

We expect The Pensions Regulator to get in touch with employers about 12 months before their staging date. They will base this on HMRC records.

Rather than waiting to hear from The Pensions Regulator, all employers should be proactive in identifying their staging date and putting together a plan of action.

Your first automatic enrolment task is to visit www.tpr.gov.uk/staging and find out your staging date.