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Staying on top of your auto enrolment record keeping

12th May 2014
Brought to you by
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We’ve been creating market-leading accounting software since 1981 and in that time we’ve come a...
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As an employer, you now have a legal duty to help your employees save for their retirement. You must provide a pension scheme for your workers and contribute towards it.

As part of your auto enrolment duties, you also have a legal requirement to keep records about your employees and your chosen pension scheme. You’ll need to be able to produce these records for the Pensions Regulator if requested, so it’s important to keep your records in check. In this blog post we’re going to look at the records you must keep and how long you need to keep them for.

Employee records

You must keep records about your employees, for example employee names, National Insurance numbers, opt-in, opt-out and joining notices. Here’s a list of information you must keep about your eligible jobholders who are auto enrolled onto your qualifying pension schemes:

  • Name
  • National Insurance Number
  • Date of birth
  • Salary
  • Auto enrolment dates – the date your employee was notified about auto enrolment, the date they were given information from the pension provider about the pension scheme they’ve been auto enrolled into and the date they were enrolled into it. Keep copies of the communications you send to each category of workers.
  • The contributions the jobholder makes and the contributions you as their employer makes on their behalf, in each pay period.
  • Opt-out notice if one of your eligible jobholders opts out

You have a legal duty to keep these records for six years. If a non-eligible jobholder opts out, you’ll need to keep a copy of the opt-out notice for four years.

For more information about the employee records you must keep, take a look at The Pensions Regulator.

Pension scheme records

You also have a legal requirement to keep records about your qualifying pension schemes. These records include the name and address of your pension scheme provider and the pension scheme reference number.The information you must keep about your pension scheme depends on the type of pension scheme in place. Therefore it’s important to know the type of pension scheme you’re using before starting your record keeping. Key information you may need to keep includes the following:

  • Pension scheme provider name and address
  • Scheme reference number
  • Name of the authority that regulates the scheme

You will need to keep the above records for six years. Once you know what type of pension scheme you’re using, refer to The Pensions Regulator for the complete list of records you must keep.

Managing your record keeping

Your existing employee payroll records will be sufficient on the most part, but you will need to keep copies of opt-in, opt-out, joining notices for each jobholder and any communications you send to your employees in their original format (this can include electronic copies).

Sound like a lot of paper? Record keeping doesn’t need to mean mountains of paper and endless filing cabinets taking up valuable office space.

Many companies now choose to automate their record keeping and store their records electronically using document management software. Storing your documents electronically means you can quickly retrieve them when you need to and save on paper, printing and storage costs. Plus, it means your records are safe from fires, floods or simply getting lost.

While you’re at it, why not store all your files electronically like customer orders, supplier invoices, credit notes, signed delivery notes, timesheets and general correspondence? For a document management solution, take a look at Opera 3 Document Management

About Pegasus Software

Pegasus has been one of the UK's leading suppliers of financial, payroll and business software solutions for over 30 years. Our flagship solution is award-winning Opera 3. Opera 3 is a complete business and accounting solution that can be fully integrated throughout your organisation, eliminating the need to run separate finance, payroll, CRM or service systems.

To learn more, contact us today on 0800 919 704, e-mail [email protected] or visit www.pegasus.co.uk.

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