Auto enrolment gets underway

For major employers, pensions auto-enrolment is about to be introduced from October 2012. This will clearly have some impact in future years, although for the moment only the very largest employers will be affected.

Employers with over 120,000 people on PAYE will have to implement auto-enrolment from October, and those with 50,000 to 119,999 people on PAYE are covered from 1 November.

During 2013, the numbers drop, so that by the end of the year, any employer with over 500 people on PAYE will be covered.

The final stages of implementation run through to 2017 by which time even employers with no PAYE scheme will be covered. The crucial element of auto-enrolment is that employers will be obliged to contribute to a pension scheme for their workers.

www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/employers/staging-date-timeline.aspx