-- Pension Auto Enrolment Opt In rules eased --


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Employers will have a month to tell their workers that they have been automatically enrolled onto a workplace pension scheme from October, rather than just a week, under relaxed rules designed to ease the burden of pensions reform on business.

The Department for Work and Pensions said on Wednesday it would allow employers four weeks to inform all staff about entering them into an occupational pension scheme, rather than just one week as it had initially planned.

The move should help businesses adapt to the widescale pension reform, which from October will see hundreds of thousands of workers entered into a pension scheme for the first time, the Department said.

Employers still have a period of 12 weeks to enrol new starters onto a scheme, the DWP said.

The relaxed rules follow the revised timetable for so-called "auto-enrolment", which was published last month and will see the entire system in place three years later than originally planned by politicians.

Employers of all sizes will now have to pay the minimum level of contributions required under the system by October 2018, rather than 2015, the DWP confirmed.

Small businesses employing fewer than 50 staff are to have their automatic enrolment dates delayed until at least May 2015 - more than a year later than planned.

Firms will now have a clearer sense of what they need to do to prepare for the reforms. This will assist them with business planning, implementing payroll changes, and choosing the type of pensions provision.

Auto-enrolment is a once in a generation opportunity that will help tackle the UK's pensions savings crisis. The injection of clarity provided by the Government is very welcome. Now the Government has to stick with the new plan and do everything possible to help employers and schemes prepare for the launch of auto-enrolment."

Steve Webb, pensions minister, said: "Automatic enrolment can now begin and start a much-needed seismic shift in pension saving in this country."

The Government has also published guidance on how employers can certify existing pension schemes, to make sure they qualify for auto-enrolment.

Source: DWP

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