Auto
Enrolment
Auto Enrolment Pensions
What is auto enrolment?
When employees fulfil 3 criteria, an employer must provide a pension scheme.
The criteria are:
- That the employee is 22 or over.
- That they are under state retirement age
- That they earn more than £833.00 per month or £192.00 per week (£10,000.00 per year)
The employee must contribute a minimum of 5% of their earnings over £520.00 per month or £120.00 per week. The employer is required to contribute a minimum of 3% of the employees earnings over the same thresholds.
Younger employees or those earning less than £10,000.00 per year can ‘opt in’, but the employer is not required to contribute to the pension scheme.
Can I opt out?
The employer cannot opt out of Auto Enrolment.
The employee can choose to opt out of the pension scheme after they have been enroled. Opting out requires the employee to follow the pension providers process for opting out, which can be as simple as a phone call or filling in a form online. In the first month of pension contributions, the employee can opt out and receive a refund of those contributions. If the employee opts out after the first month, the earlier contributions will not be refunded and will stay invested in the pension scheme.
How is auto enrolment pension calculated?
Employee’s gross pay | £1,666.67 |
Less £520.00 (earnings excluded from pension contributions) | £1,146.67 |
Employees 5% contribution less 20% tax relief | £45.86 |
Employers 3% contribution | £34.41 |
Total pension contribution | £80.27 |
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