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Automatic enrolment


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As part of the pension reforms announced by the Government, certain employees must be automatically enrolled into a work based pension scheme, meeting the conditions specified by the Pensions Regulator. Sage 50 Payroll: Auto Enrolment Edition makes these changes as easy as possible.

If you want to know more about automatic enrolment, visit the Pensions Regulator website.

Tip: With Sage 50 Payroll Auto Enrolment Edition, you have the option to subscribe to the new Pensions Module, giving you a number of additional options making processing automatic enrolment even easier. If you don't already subscribe to the Pensions Module, to find information about pricing and to subscribe now, visit the Sage Store.

Complying with the legislation

The Pensions Regulator will provide you with a staging date; the date by which you must have started operating a qualifying pension scheme. This date is based on the number of people you employ.

You can use the Pension Centre to find your staging date and make a plan to prepare for automatic enrolment. To find out more, from the main payroll desktop, click Pension Centre.

Summary of employer responsibilities

As an employer, your new responsibilities are to:

Provide details about the scheme to your employees and ensure they have access to a qualifying pension that meets the requirements specified by the Pensions Regulator. For example, it must be an occupational or personal scheme and be tax registered.
Automatically enrol all eligible employees into the pension scheme, provided they are not already a member of a suitable scheme. Eligible employees are those aged between 22 and the state pension age, who earn more than a specified amount each year (£10,000 for the 2014/2015 tax year).s
Give employees the opportunity to opt out of the scheme, if they decide that saving this way does not meet their own personal requirements. To do this, the employee must provide you with a completed opt out notice within one month of their automatic enrolment. You must keep these notices - either paper or electronic copies - for 4 years.
For more information, see the Pension Centre or visit the Pensions Regulator website.

Your next step:

Before setting up your software to operate this type of pension scheme, please contact a pensions advisor or The Pensions Regulator for advice.

When you are ready to set up your software > Company > Pension Schemes. For more information, see Managing pension schemes.

Need more help? You may find the Questions and Answers section useful.

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