Getting automatic enrolment right is vital and in some cases seeking expert advice to pass on to your clients is the only way forward.
To help on that journey in the coming months, PracticeWEB has come up with a handy new guide to prepare for auto enrolment. The advice is part of the PW Business and Tax Pack, but we’ve given you a sneak peek here of some of the points it covers to successfully implement AE.
Key preparation advice includes:
- Find out staging date - this depends on the number of employees in your PAYE scheme on 1 April 2012. Find out your exact staging date on The Pensions Regulator website
- Create action plan - TPR has a chart that sets out each step and a time schedule. Nominate a contact who will receive monthly reminder emails and guidance
- Identify eligible staff - not all your employees will necessarily qualify for AE. Part-time workers, employees on short-term contracts and those on maternity, parental or carer's leave have to be automatically enrolled if they meet the requirements
- Choose a scheme - there are three sets of requirements that a pension scheme must meet: minimum requirements, qualifying criteria and AE criteria. Find out more on TPR website
- Enrol staff - give your pension provider information about eligible employees and keep records of this process to demonstrate that you are complying
- Register with TPR - you must register within five months of your staging date
- Inform employees and monitor changes - when enrolment starts, the pension operator, type of pension, level of contributions and how to opt out. You’ll need a process to monitor when employees move categories as they may become eligible
- Opting out - employees can opt out after they have been enrolled. You’ll need to refund contributions of staff who opt out within one month of enrolment, and you have to re-enrol employees who have previously opted out every three years
PracticeWEB’s Business and Tax Pack is a suite of branded reports, articles and newsletters designed to market your firm to clients and prospects. Get in touch with the PW team to find out more.
AccountingWEB has launched the No-one gets left behind campaign to alert as many accountants as possible to the obligations implied by auto enrolment. Read our simple eight-point statement which sets out the auto enrolment facts you need to know.
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