The first stage of each employer's journey is to understand how auto-enrolment affects them.

 

We will provide every client with a detailed guide tailored for their business which sets out what auto-enrolment means for them, how it affects their employees and what it might cost them to comply.

 

It is important that every client plans ahead and doesn't get caught out by timing or a lack of available help or pension provision. A client can be fined if they don't comply or are late in doing so - if they have asked you to help they may hold you responsible! There are around 1.3m employers with Staging Dates between now and September 2018. We will provide a tailored project plan and timeline for each client in their guide.

 

We will not make a charge to either you or your clients for the guide.

 

Understanding how they are affected and what they must do to comply is only the first part of the journey for your clients. They must have what is known as a ‘qualifying workplace pension scheme’ in place for their employees to be enrolled into. The scheme must meet certain standards – even if a client already has a company pension scheme it cannot simply be assumed that it can be used for automatic enrolment!

 

We will review any existing arrangements that your clients may have to see if they can be used for auto-enrolment. We will also help each client to design a suitable scheme for their workers - including contribution rates, the salary to be used, whether to postpone payment and whether to use salary sacrifice.

 

If necessary we will review suitable schemes in the marketplace for a client and give them a shortlist to select from.

 

We will help them to sign up to their chosen pension provider and to communicate this to their employees. We will keep you informed of all decisions at each step.

 

Ok, so your clients have their qualifying workplace pension schemes in place and ready. The next stage of the journey is to make sure both you and they know who must be automatically enrolled and who mustn’t. This may be a service which you will provide for them.

 

We will help you to ensure that you have the appropriate tools and solutions in place before you need to use them. If a client is doing their own assessment, we can help with this too. If necessary we can provide software solutions for you (and them).

 

As well as assessing each worker every time they pay them, enrolling them into the pension scheme at the right time and calculating and deducting contributions from them, each client will also need to communicate with every one of their workers and tell them how they are affected by auto-enrolment.

 

We can provide clear, simple to understand and engaging member communications, covering both the statutory enrolment letters and information and also pre-staging / compliance announcements.

 

We will guide you and your clients through the Regulations and compliance requirements for auto-enrolment - there are over 250 pages of it!

 

We will ensure that your clients are fully compliant and remain so. They must comply with the Pensions Regulator’s guidance. Their Declaration of Compliance must be completed on-line within five months of their own staging or compliance date. Each client can be fined (heavily) if they don’t comply.

 

We will provide every client with a guide on how to complete their Declaration of Compliance once they have passed their staging / compliance date.

 

Great, your client has now passed their staging / compliance date. They've automatically enrolled their employees. Their journey is at an end...almost.

 

It is important that every client remains compliant beyond their staging / compliance date. Auto-enrolment is an ongoing process.

 

We can provide each client with a ‘Process Guide’ which sets out what they must do each time they pay their workers. It tells them:

If a client wants us to, we can also provide a Governance Report once a year letting them know how their selected pension provider and scheme is performing.  This service starts from just £250 per year.

 

We can also help each client to go through the re-enrolment process once every three years.