An employer’s obligations under the Workplace Pension reforms have been a significant increase in the demand placed on businesses administration, finance and/or payroll department.
Workplace Pension reforms add another unwanted burden for employers dealing with Payroll administration. The ongoing nature of assessing and communication to workers is a facet of Workplace Pensions that is often overlooked.
Mitchell Charlesworth’s Payroll Services team can help to alleviate this significant administrative burden.
Our Payroll Services team are used to managing payrolls with many different types of pension schemes. For them, Auto-Enrolment has been an extension to the services that they have provided for decades.
To make certain that you comply with the new pension legislation, additional administration will be required to ensure that you routinely assess workers, issue communication, and manage Opt-Outs.
Whoever your Pension Provider is, it is unlikely they will have a complete solution for you that includes payroll administration.
Not all pension providers will manage communication to workers. Some will use a “single pass” payroll extraction after each payroll run to provide the complete package whilst others suggest a second pay run to be processed once they have worked out the contributions using software often referred to as ‘Middleware’.
Pension providers each have their own unique way of assisting with some or all these administrative tasks. They all require data extraction from payroll on a run-by-run basis to provide any support.
Mitchell Charlesworth can help
Mitchell Charlesworth’s Payroll solution assumes that we will use a “Single Pass” basis where our payroll software will process the ongoing compliance aspect of Auto-Enrolment.
- Applying assessment to categorise workers at duties start date
- Assessment of subsequent starters
- Re-assessment of existing employees where income or age increases
- Reassessment 3 years after staging date / duties start date
- Processing Worker Postponement, Opt-Outs, Refunds and Opt-Ins
- 3 Yearly Re-assessment of workers
At the end of each pay cycle, whether weekly or monthly, data is required to be uploaded/Imported to the pension provider detailing the contributions and worker status of each member.
Our payroll services department will typically handle data uploads direct through our software with the most common workplace pension providers.
Alternatively, we can assist employers by generating a data file that they can upload to their pension provider’s systems.
Employee Communication
It is an employer’s obligation to inform workers on a timely basis of any postponement, assessment status as and when it changes and to notify workers of their options such as Opt-Out or Opt-In in writing.
Mitchell Charlesworth can handle employee communication. We generate compliant workplace communications that are issued direct to an employee’s payslip portal or for an employer to pass to their worker.
Should you have any queries or would like further advice about meeting your Auto-Enrolment obligations, do not hesitate to contact Ashley Bellis or our other Auto-Enrolment specialists to the right of this page.
