Your auto enrolment questions answered

A: Yes, there are two types of exclusions which are:

People who are treated as workers but are not covered by the employer duties:

• those who do not work or ordinarily work in the UK
• those under 16, and
• those aged 75 and over.

People who are not treated as workers so the employer duties don't apply to them:

• the self employed
• members of the armed forces, and
• directors of companies unless they have a contract of employment to work for that company and there is anyone else employed by the company under a contract of employment.

A: Yes. Even if you have an existing pension scheme that is better than the minimum standard you'll still have employer duties to perform - for example telling existing members how automatic enrolment will affect them and automatically enrolling new workers.

A: No, all workers are affected.

A: You don't have to pay contributions for an entitled worker but you must give them the option to join a pension scheme.

If a non-eligible jobholder decides to join the scheme you must make contributions on their behalf, of at least the minimum employer contribution level.

You must pay contributions of at least the minimum employer contribution level for eligible jobholders who are automatically enrolled.

A:The contract of employment will determine the employer. If there is no contract in place, it's whoever is responsible for paying the worker or whoever actually pays the worker.

A: Each employer will be required to fulfil their employer duties separately, ignoring any other employment or earnings that the worker has.

A: The employer duties apply to these workers each time work is undertaken. For example if a you employ a worker for three months, then employ them again six months later, the employer duties will apply on both occasions.

A: These workers will generally need to be assessed by reference to their age, how you pay them and how much they earn.

For example if you normally pay workers every Friday for work done between Saturday and Friday, you would have to work out how much the workers earned between Saturday and Friday to determine what particular employer duties apply.

A: Where the contract of employment is genuinely for a period of less than three months and the worker has not joined or opted in during the waiting period, your employer duties fall away at the end of the contract.

Where you re-employ a worker, you can operate the waiting period again if you wish and don't have to take into account any previous waiting periods.

A: Yes. Any worker can stop making contributions to a pension scheme at any time. However they will not receive a refund of the contributions they've made if the pension scheme is a contract-based scheme, such as a Group Personal Pension.

Where the pension scheme is a trust-based scheme, under current rules the worker may be able to get a refund.

A: Designing an efficient joining process will help to minimise the number of refunds you might have to make. When we implement your scheme, we'll agree the best way to set up your joining process taking account of your payroll processes.

A: No. All of the employer duties apply regardless of pension scheme type.

A: We will allow our new and existing clients to use our automatic enrolment system from October 2012.

A: Find out more about our automatic enrolment service.

A: Yes

A: Yes

A: Our research has shown that most small to medium sized employers will look for a single, uniform solution for their entire workforce. This is particularly the case where there is already a pension scheme in place; we expect that these employers will want as little change as possible.

Scottish Life will work with you to deliver the best solution for you in the most cost-effective way. There may be some circumstances where NEST has a valuable role to play, for example employers that have a large number of low paid workers or high staff turnover.

Like other providers, we are working closely with NEST to establish if there are opportunities to provide an integrated solution in these circumstances. As a minimum we will provide an extract that can be used with NEST.

A: We're currently in discussion with payroll providers. As a minimum we will provide a data extract that payroll providers can use.

A: Please contact:
Email – ebcsc@scottishlife.co.uk

Telephone – 0131 652 5370

8.00am to 6.00pm Monday-Thursday and 8.00am to 5.00pm on Friday.

Postal address - Scottish Life

EBC Service Centre

Royal London House

Alderley Road

Wilmslow

SK9 1PF