Automatic pensions registration – heard about it?

At Burton Beavan, we work with a lot of start-ups and new companies. And it’s for these clients that this article is particularly important. If you’re about to take on your first member of staff, you need to know about automatic pensions registration.

For the last 5 years, it has been staged in gradually, starting with the very largest companies. Now, every company is covered.

It’s a statutory duty to comply with these regulations and you’ll run a real risk of paying painful fines to the Pensions Regulator if you’re not on top of this.

We’re always here to help. If you want to talk, give us a call but, in the meantime, here’s our guide to how to use the Pension Regulator’s online system to get your company registered and on track.

Please click this link to go to the Pensions Regulator’s automatic enrolment page

Automatic Pensions Registration Question 1 – Are you actually a qualifying employer?

If any of these apply:

• you’re a director of a business and don’t plan to employ anyone
• you’re a freelancer
• you’re self-employed
• you’re a director in a business with a number of directors and none of you (including yourself) have an employment contract, or
• you run a business which is no longer trading

…there’s no need to register but you do need to let the Pensions Regulator know that you don’t need to register.

To do that, you need to fill in this form. Make sure you have your letter code, PAYE reference and Companies House number (if you have one) to hand when completing the form.

Burton Beavan tip – If you used to employ people to work in your home, like a cleaner, a personal care assistant, or a nanny, you’ll need to use this form to tell the Pensions Regulator.

If you’ve started your new person, you’re considering taking someone on, or the staff you have don’t earn enough to pay tax or National Insurance, you may need to register so click “Yes” to go to the second question.

Automatic Pensions Registration Question 2 – How old are your employees or prospective employees?

If none of your (current or future) staff are between the age of 22 and the state pension age, you’re not required to register yet so click the “no” button.

If they are, then you’ll need to click either “yes” or “unsure”.

Automatic Pensions Registration Question 3 – What are my staff’s earnings?

What the Pensions Regulator wants to know now is how much you pay your staff.

If you pay them at or above £10,000 a year, £833 a month, or £192 a week, please click “yes” – you will need to register with the Pensions Regulator after all as you do qualify.

If their wages are less, you don’t need to provide an auto enrolment pension at this time. However, as soon as you do take on someone between the age of 22 and up to the state pension age and you pay them more than £10,000 a year, £833 a month, or £192 a month, you’ll need to come back to the site straight away to start your registration process.

Automatic Pension Registration – if you’ve got this far, you’ll need to register

Now it all begins. Over the coming weeks, you’ll be legally required to do the following:

• select a pension scheme that is approved for automatic enrolment by the Regulator
• determine which staff need to be enrolled onto a pension when your duties start,
• formally write to all qualifying staff members to tell them how the system applies to them, and, finally,
• revisit the Pensions Regulator’s website to declare your compliance

Automatic Pensions Registration – get Burton Beavan involved

As you know, we recommend Xero. It’s a genuinely innovative online bookkeeping and accounting system in the cloud that looks after so much so well.

However, anything to do with payroll (which this does because of the way the system operates), please leave it to your Burton Beavan account manager.

Please call us on 01606 333 900 or email us at hello@burtonbeavan.co.uk