Whether you employ 1 person or 100s – all employers now have workplace pension duties.  Even if you think you won’t need to put your staff into a pension scheme, your responsibilities begin on the day your first member of staff starts work.

There are 3 tasks you must carry out to meet your legal duties.

1. Assess your staff

If your staff meet the criteria below, you must put them into a pension scheme and pay into it.

• Aged 22 or over (up to state pension age)
• Earn at least £10,000 a year

2. Inform your staff

You must write to all your staff within 6 weeks of your duties start date. This tells them how automatic enrolment applies to them – regardless of whether or not they are put into the pension scheme.

3. Declare your compliance

Within 5 months of your duties start date, you must complete an online declaration of compliance. This tells The Pensions Regulator how you’ve met your legal duties.

Then every 3 years, you must re-enrol anyone who opted out and re-declare your compliance.

Workplace pensions are not a one-off effort.

• Employers (or their payroll agents) must continuously assess the workforce.
• Exchanging information with the pension provider every pay period.
• Reconciling and paying contributions.

These tasks will increase the cost of running your payroll.