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Auto-Enrolment
Consultation on Improvements to Auto-Enrolment
Tuesday, March 26th, 2013On 25 March 2013, the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) announced a Consultation on ‘technical changes’ to improve the Auto-Enrolment process. Draft legislation was published alongside the Consultation with the intention that these are effective from April 2014. However, the primary legislation that is necessary will be included in the Pensions Bill 2013 meaning [...]
Auto-Enrolment Thresholds per Pay Frequency
Tuesday, January 29th, 2013In December 2012, the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) outlined the Government’s proposals for its annual review of the thresholds for 2013/14. This annual review is a requirement of the Pensions Act 2008 and resulted in Automatic Enrolment (Earnings Trigger and Qualifying Earnings Band) Order 2012, which set the thresholds for 2012/13. In summary, [...]
Auto-Enrolment Thresholds Announced for 2013/14
Tuesday, December 18th, 2012On 06 September 2012, Pensions Minister Steve Webb announced the Consultation for the 2013/14 revision, suggesting that the Earnings Trigger and the Lower and Upper limits of the Qualifying Earnings Bands remain respectively aligned with the PAYE Threshold, the Lower Earnings Limit (LEL) and the Upper Earnings Limit (UEL). At time of the Consultation, the [...]
Auto-Enrolment Thresholds 2013/14
Tuesday, December 11th, 2012As announced in our Autumn Statement Newsletter, the Personal Allowance is set to increase to £9,440 from April 2013. This is an increase of £235 on the previously published figure of £9,205, announced at Budget 2012. In total, the increase from 2012/13 to 2013/14 equates to £1,335 in additional tax allowances. As we reported in [...]
TPR Encourages Auto-Enrolment into Good Quality DC Schemes
Tuesday, December 11th, 2012On 04 December 2012, The Pensions Regulator (TPR) outlined its stance on the type of Defined Contribution (DC) scheme that employers should use if they are selecting this as their Auto-Enrolment Qualifying scheme. This is in support of the Government’s strategy ‘Reinvigorating Workplace Pensions’. In a Press Release, reiterated by Chairman Michael O’Higgins at the [...]
Auto-Enrolment Thresholds 2013/14
Monday, September 10th, 2012The Pensions Act 2008 requires the annual review of the Auto-Enrolment thresholds. These are, currently, set in The Automatic Enrolment (Earnings Trigger and Qualifying Earnings Band) Order 2012. In a written statement on 06 September, Pensions Minister Steve Webb announced the publication of the latest Government consultation on the review and revisions of the Earnings [...]
Auto-Enrolment and the Lifetime Allowance
Monday, August 6th, 2012From 06 April 2012 the Lifetime Allowance for tax relief on pension contributions reduced from £1.8 million to £1.5 million. At this date, if it was expected that an employee’s pension benefits would be greater than £1.5 million, they could ask for ‘Fixed Protection’ from HMRC. In effect, if granted, the Protection guaranteed not to [...]
RBS Starts Auto-Enrolment
Saturday, July 28th, 2012Although the first Auto-Enrolment Staging Date is not until October 2012, companies are allowed to bring forward their date. An article by Professional Pensions reports that the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has become the first UK business to commence its Auto-Enrolment responsibilities in line with the Government’s requirements. The article reports that RBS is [...]
Auto-Enrolment Safeguards in Place
Saturday, June 30th, 2012Chapter 3 of the Pensions Act 2008 contains a number of safeguards in order to protect an individual from any discriminatory behaviour by an employer with regards to their right to pension scheme membership. These safeguards apply to the two categories of individuals that are affected by the workplace reforms, namely jobholders and Entitled Workers. [...]
Auto-Enrolment Earnings Trigger and Bands in Legislation
Sunday, June 24th, 2012Parliament has approved, and the Pensions Minister Steve Webb has signed, the necessary Order which makes the required changes to the Pensions Act 2008, confirming the Earnings Trigger and the Qualifying Earnings Bands. This Order came into force on 15 June 2012 and will applies to the first year of auto-enrolment. Section 14 of the [...]
Auto-Enrolment and European Employees
Sunday, June 24th, 2012In February 2012, Steve Webb announced a consultation which looked at the unintended burden of having to Auto-Enrol some dual-status employees. A ‘qualifying employee’ under a 2003 European Union Directive was never intended to be regarded as a jobholder under the Pensions Act 2008. This may have led some employers having to consider these employees [...]
Pensions Auto-Enrolment Career Averaged Revalued Earnings Defined Benefit Schemes
Monday, May 21st, 2012The Pensions Act 2008 requires an employer to select a qualifying workplace pension scheme for use when fulfilling its auto-enrolment responsibilities. Section 28 of the Act allows employers to, in effect; self-certify that their existing pension scheme meets the relevant quality requirements throughout a certification period and can be regarded as a qualifying scheme. Certain [...]
Bringing Forward Auto-Enrolment Staging Dates
Sunday, April 15th, 2012Recently, we advised that revised Staging Dates have recently been made available on the DWP Website as part of a consultation and the publication of draft legislation. See the link below as a reminder. All employers are able to bring forward their Staging Date from that stated in legislation. There may be a number of [...]
Auto-Enrolment Legislative Framework Comes Together
Sunday, February 26th, 2012At the start of the month, the DWP made available a raft of documentation and Regulations that help to complete the legislative framework for auto-enrolment, commencing for some employers this year. These are detailed below, with links to the final version of the Regulations. We have only offered the briefest of explanations in this Newsletter: [...]
