In a workplace pension scheme already?

How will automatic enrolment affect me?

The good news is, that if you are already a member of your employer’s workplace pension scheme and it meets certain minimum standards, you will not be affected by automatic enrolment.

However, if you and/or your employer’s contributions are below the minimum contributions for an automatic enrolment scheme, you and/or your employer may need to start or increase contributions. Again, this should be good news for you, as it should enable you to build up a bigger pension pot.

Employers have a number of different options available to them before they reach the date at which they must introduce an automatic enrolment workplace pension scheme (their staging date). They can:

• use an existing workplace pension scheme, if it qualifies; existing members may notice no difference in the way that the scheme operates;
• amend an existing workplace pension scheme to meet the qualifying criteria;  employers with existing pension schemes that do not meet the minimum qualifying criteria may decide to amend the scheme so that it qualifies;
• set up a new pension scheme which meets the qualifying criteria; and/or
• use NEST (the National Employment Savings Trust), a new scheme that is available to any employer to use for some or all of their staff; or
• use a combination of these options for different areas of their workforce.

If there are any changes to your existing workplace pension scheme as a result of the introduction of automatic enrolment, your employer will give you the details and tell you the options that are available to you.

Frequently asked...