The Workplace Pension – Don’t ignore it!!

If you’ve been hidden away for the past 5 years and if you haven’t seen the new Pensions Regulator advert with the big multi-coloured fluffy monster/strange looking teddy bear thing (apparently called Workie!) you might not have realised that all employers are now required to enrol their employees into a workplace pension.

I employ someone, what does that mean for me?

Any employee who is aged 22 or older and who earns more than £10,000 per year will need to be included in the pension scheme. As their employer, you’ll need to contribute into their pension too and the minimum rates are set out below:

DateEmployer Minimum ContributionTotal Minimum ContributionBefore April 5 20181%2% (including 1% staff contribution)April 6 2018 – April 5 20192%5% (including 3% staff contribution)After April 6 20193%8% (including 5% staff contribution)

When will I need to have a pension in place?

2017 will see the largest number of companies reach their auto-enrolment staging date since it started in 2012, with the majority of these businesses being SMEs. From October, all companies, regardless of size, will be expected to have a workplace pension in place.

What does that mean for employers?

If you don’t already have your workplace pension set up, it will be happening this year. Whilst we know that this is a big investment for smaller business, unfortunately, it can no longer be ignored. Bear in mind pension schemes can take a while to set up, so we recommend that you need to start putting plans in place now.