Staging & Phasing

Staging Dates

Recognising the administrative difficulty to Department for Work and Pensions/The Pensions Regulator and the pensions industry in applying the new duties to all employers at the same time, the DWP is proposing to ‘stage’ the employer duties over a 4 year period. The above graph shows how the employer duties are proposed to be ‘staged’ over the 4 years in 43 tranches (generally the 1st of each month with a few breaks) so that the duties will apply to all employers by October 2016. Employers will be told what their staging date is 12 months before it occurs and will be reminded again 3 months before.

Note that a small group of randomly selected employers with less than 50 workers will have their staging date brought forward before the majority of small employers to make sure that the auto-enrolment systems and processes work properly for these employers.

Any employer can request their staging date to be brought forward to any point after 2012 as long as they make a declaration to the Pensions Regulator that they have contacted the scheme trustee/ manager/provider and they have agreed that the scheme can be used for auto-enrolment. It will also be possible for large employers to voluntarily operate auto-enrolment from July 2012.

The requirement to be compliant with the new rules starts from October 2012 and will vary dependent on size of your business and PAYE reference number. The Regulator will write to all employers around 12 months before their staging date so that they know when to automatically enrol their eligible jobholders. Three months before the employer’s staging date the Regulator will write again to remind them of the new duties and the need to register.

Employers with more than one PAYE will start their duties for all their PAYE at the same time, on the staging date of their largest PAYE.

Employer (by PAYE scheme size or other description)	Staging date
120,000 or more	01-Oct-12
50,000-119,999	01-Nov-12
30,000-49,999	01-Jan-13
20,000-29,999	01-Feb-13
10,000-19,999	01-Mar-13
6,000-9,999	01-Apr-13
4,100-5,999	01-May-13
4,000-4,099	01-Jun-13
3,000-3,999	01-Jul-13
2,000-2,999	01-Aug-13
1,250-1,999	01-Sep-13
800-1,249	01-Oct-13
500-799	01-Nov-13
350-499	01-Jan-14
250-349	01-Feb-14
Less than 50 with the last 2 characters in their PAYE reference numbers 92, A1-A9, AA-AZ, B1-B9, BA-BY, M1-M9, MA-MZ, Z1-Z9 or ZA-ZZ	01-Mar-14
240-249	01-Apr-14
150-239	01-May-14
90-149	01-Jun-14
50-89	01-Jul-14
Less than 50	01-Aug-14

Phasing In Contributions

	Employee Pays	Employer Pays
Before October 2016	1%	1%
October 2016 - October 2017	3%	3%
From October 2017	5%	3%

If you have any questions please conact us to speak to an adviser or alternatively use our call back service and one of our advisers will call you back to discuss your requirements. If you would like a copy of our New Penions Reform Guide then please complete your details to the right and download your free copy.