Work out your costs

One of your key Automatic Enrolment duties is to make regular contributions to your workers’ pension scheme. You only need to contribute to pensions of Eligible Jobholders and Non-eligible Jobholders who choose to opt in. You may choose to contribute to the pensions of Entitled Workers although you are not required to do so.

You may incur one-off costs when setting up your pension scheme or receiving independent financial advice together with extra costs keeping up to-date with the required legislation and the additional administration tasks.

IRIS cannot give any financial advice or recommend a pension provider. You must seek advice from an Independent Financial Advisor (IFA)

Choose your pension scheme (or check your existing one)

If you already have a pension scheme, check with your pension provider that you can use it as a qualifying scheme for Automatic Enrolment.

It is not essential to have a pension scheme as you may not have anyone to automatically enrol. However, workers can request to opt in / join a pension scheme so it is advisable to have an approved scheme set up.

Some larger pension providers deem supplying a pension scheme to smaller businesses unprofitable. To ensure all employers can provide a pension scheme to their workers, the Government set up NEST who has a public service obligation and must accept all employers.