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Pensions

Employers have to provide a workplace pension scheme for eligible staff as soon as your first member of staff starts working for you.

Who you must enrol
You must enrol and make an employer’s contribution for all staff who:
• are aged between 22 and the State Pension age
• earn at least £10,000 a year
• normally work in the UK.
If staff become eligible because of a change in their age or earnings, you must put them into your pension scheme and write to them within 6 weeks of the day they meet the criteria.
How much you must pay
You must pay at least 2% of your employee’s ‘qualifying earnings’ into your staff’s pension scheme. This will rise to 3% in April 2019.
Check the pension scheme you’re using to find out what counts as ‘qualifying earnings’.
Under most schemes, it’s the employee’s total earnings between £6,032 and £46,350 a year before tax. Total earnings include:
• salary or wages
• bonuses and commission
• overtime
• statutory sick pay
• statutory maternity, paternity or adoption pay

Paying contributions
You must deduct contributions from your staff’s pay each month.
You may be fined if you pay late or do not pay the minimum contribution for each member of staff.
Manage your workplace pension scheme
When you’ve set up a workplace pension scheme, you must:
• check if and when staff should be re-enrolled
• manage requests to join and leave your pension scheme
• keep records about how you’ve met your legal duties
• check if existing staff should be added to your pension scheme, for example when they earn a certain amount

Requests to join or leave your pension scheme
All staff can request to join your pension scheme if they want to. You must check they are eligible and put them into the scheme within 1 month of getting their request.
Staff can leave your pension scheme whenever they want. You must take them out of the scheme within one month of getting their request.
If staff ask to leave your pension scheme within 1 month of joining (known as the ‘opt-out window’), you will have to refund their contributions within 1 month. If they ask to leave after the opt-out window, their contributions will be kept in their pension until they retire.

Keep records
You must keep records of how you’ve met your legal duties for maintaining your pension scheme, including:
• the names and addresses of staff enrolled
• when contributions are paid in
• all requests to join or leave your pension scheme
• your pension scheme reference or registry number (PSR)
You must keep these records for 6 years except for requests to leave your pension scheme which must be kept for 4 years. You must also keep track of the ages and earnings of staff so you can enrol them when they become eligible.

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