We would like to draw your attention to the point that states all companies must “have processes in place to satisfy the re-enrolment requirements every three years.”

Under auto-enrolment regulations, every three years you’ll need to put staff back into your workplace pension scheme if they have left it, and if they meet the criteria to be put into such a scheme. 

Choosing your Re-enrolment Date

Also known as cyclical re-enrolment or three-year re-enrolment, this requirement to re-enrol covers staff who opted out of your scheme more than 12 months before your re-enrolment date or staff who are still in the scheme but pay below the minimum contributions level.

With the re-enrolment date fast approaching for many companies, now is the time to ensure you have everything in place. First, we advise choosing your re-enrolment date, which will fall within a six-month window with three months on either side of the 3rd anniversary of your auto-enrolment staging date or duties start date.

This flexible window of time is designed to help employers fit around their business practices and schedule their re-enrolment date at a time when they have sufficient resources. This date cannot be postponed for any reason so it is up to you to plan ahead.

Many companies choose to align the re-enrolment date with their payroll for a streamlined process where the start date matches the start of a payperiod.

Identifying Eligible Employees

Once you have chosen your date, you must work out which of your staff the re-enrolment applies to and whether they meet the necessary criteria to be re-enrolled. Eligible employees are those aged between 22 and under State Pension age with earnings of more than £10,000 (2018/19 tax year).

If any employee has handed in their notice to end employment, been given notice of dismissal or already has protection from the lifetime allowance you are not legally required to re-enrol them.

All eligible staff must be re-enrolled from the chosen re-enrolment date and employers must start contributing to their pension scheme from that date.

Communication is key when it comes to auto-enrolment and employers must communicate with eligible staff in writing within six weeks of their chosen re-enrolment date. This means explaining to individuals exactly how re-enrolment applies to them.

Declaring your Compliance

Employers do not need to inform TPR of their re-enrolment date until they submit their re-declaration of compliance. Even if you do not identify any eligible staff to re-enrol, this paperwork must be submitted within five calendar months of the third anniversary of your duties start date or staging date. This will show that you have met your re-enrolment duties.

It is also every employer’s duty to ensure that TPR have the most up-to-date contact details to ensure timely delivery of all correspondence. You can use the dedicated contact form for this purpose, and TPR advise providing both an employer contact that should be the business owner/most senior person as well as an additional contact that will receive “task specific” emails.

Ongoing Duties 

It is absolutely essential to stay on top of your workplace pension scheme requirements and be aware of your ongoing duties. This includes keeping strict records that are readily available for submission to TPR if required.

These records need to prove that you have been meeting your legal duties and should include the names and addresses of all employees you have enrolled into the workplace pension scheme as well as comprehensive records that show every time money was paid in.

Requests to Join or Leave the Scheme

Opt outs are part and parcel of auto-enrolment and itis up to employers to monitor any employee requests to leave or join the workplace pension scheme.

Requests to join must be honoured within one month (subject to employee eligibility). If a member of staff is re-enrolled but expresses a desire to opt out, they can do so within one month and they must receive a refund of their contributions.

This process goes hand in hand with consistent monitoring of staff to assess eligibility for the scheme and to make sure that you have enrolled all eligible employees. Stay on track with the ages and earnings of all staff, and be aware of those in alternative circumstances such as those returning from parental leave and new starters.

TPR has recently adopted a much stricter approach towards workplace pension scheme compliance and swift action will be taken against any employer who fails to meet their re-enrolment duties and demonstrate full compliance in every aspect.

Contributions Increases

From 6 April 2019, there will be another round of contributions increases where the minimum amount employers must pay into their staff’s pension will go up. You must pay a minimum of 3% of a portion of your staff’s earnings into their pension, and the total combined payments made by you and your staff must be no less than 8%.

Re-enrolment takes place every three years but all employers must be aware that it can also happen and also happens on an immediate basis in certain circumstances.

For advice and support with staying on top of your auto-enrolment and re-enrolment duties, contact our expert advisers at Vintage Corporate today on 020 8371 5232 or email info@vintagecorporate.co.uk

The post Managing Your Three-Year Re-Enrolment Duties first appeared on Vintage Corporate Limited.

Your Money reports that three quarters of employees are now saving for their retirement and that workplace pension contributions have increased particularly among younger and lower paid workers. This just goes to show that employees are recognising the value of retirement planning and taking advantage of the options available.

Changing Faces

While auto enrolment has set rules that apply across all types of industry, we’d like to use this post to address the topic of auto enrolment for restaurants. The hospitality business is notorious for its high turnover which is one of the key reasons that restaurants that have a major challenge when it comes to fulfilling stringent requirements. Temporary staff, shift workers and different pay dates can all confuse matters but how does this translate into employer duties?

Whether you’re a small B&B owner or the Managing Director of a national hotel corporation, your employees will need to be registered into a workplace pension. Size is irrelevant when it comes to auto enrolment and if you employed any member of staff for the first time on or after 1 October 2017, you will need to provide them with a workplace pension from their very first day of employment. Eligible employees are those aged over 22 who earn more than £10,000 a year and have not yet reached pensionable age. They must also ordinarily work in the UK.

Auto enrolment comes with a hefty amount of admin because the eligibility criteria outlined above must be assessed at every pay cycle to keep up to date with your individual staff members. For example, an employee may have a pay rise that takes them above the £10,000 threshold or they may celebrate their 22^nd birthday and become eligible for the workplace pension. Good payroll software and professional advice will help you to stay on track with your duties.

A Collective Income

One area which can cause confusion is when your restaurant employees work multiple jobs, from which they collectively earn more than £10,000 a year. Auto enrolment rules state that this £10,000+ per year income must come from a single employer, which means that if you’re paying any part-time or temporary member of staff less than that, then you have no duty to the individual under auto enrolment.

While Scottish Widows report that almost two million workers are missing out on pension contributions due to this rule, it can also cause miscommunication whereby employees may believe they are entitled to a workplace pension due to their overall earnings and the fact that their multi-job set-up seems them working full-time hours. This is not the case and it’s important for employers to be informed about the fact.

The Question of Overtime

It’s a fact of life that many restaurant workers will find themselves working overtime on a frequent or occasional basis. So how does this factor into auto enrolment duties? There are set minimum contributions that both employer and employee must pay which apply to anything earned over £6,032 up to a limit of £46,350 (tax year 2018/2019).

This figure includes both overtime and bonus payments which is why it’s crucial to keep strict records of the overtime hours worked and any bonuses due to each individual employee to make sure that no-one misses out or pays incorrect contributions.

What about Temporary Staff?

Many restaurant employees are seasonal workers or temporary staff. While it might seem as if you would not need to join such individuals up to auto enrolment, this may not be the case. Temporary staff members will make the process more complicated as you will need to consider fluctuating hours and earnings, as well as consider staff who may join or leave in the middle of pay periods.

Implementing a solid payroll software system will help to calculate contributions and assess every member of staff at each pay cycle, but it’s still important for you to know your duties. The same general rules apply to temp staff as permanent workers, i.e. any staff that are aged between 22 to State Pension Age and earn over £192 a week, or £833 a month, must be put into a pension scheme which you must pay into. And if you employ family members in the restaurant, the same rules apply.

Postponement, Joining and Opting In

However, if you know that any employee will be working for you for less than three months, you can choose the “postponement” option. This means you can delay working out who to put into a pension scheme as long as you write to the individual member of staff to explain the process within six weeks from the date after postponement starts.

If any temporary staff member asks to be put into a pension scheme during the postponement period, they must do so in writing to their employer. Should their age and earnings fulfil the criteria, then you – as an employer – must opt the individual into the scheme within a month of receiving the request.

In the case where a staff member is earning £6,032 or less per year, then the workplace pension scheme that you enrol them into does not need to be the same as the one you use for employees. You are also not required to pay an employer contribution.

A Tronc PAYE Scheme and the Impact of Auto Enrolment

There is always the possibility that your restaurant is the exception to the auto enrolment rule. For example, where a restaurant has in place a Tronc PAYE Scheme managed by a Troncmaster and compliant with HMRC guidelines, all earnings paid through this PAYE scheme (tips and gratuities) are not impacted by the auto enrolment legislation.

As such, the restaurant will not have any auto enrolment duties in respect of the Tronc PAYE Scheme. However, there is a requirement to notify The Pensions Regulator that this is the case so that their records can be amended.

For more advice, information and support on any aspect of auto enrolment, contact the team at Vintage Corporate on 020 8371 5232 or email info@vintagecorporate.co.uk

The post Pensions Auto Enrolment for Restaurants first appeared on Vintage Corporate Limited.