People are living longer yet too many people are under-saving or not saving at all for what could be a long retirement. The law on workplace pensions has changed to make it easier for millions more people to build up a pension, particularly those on lower incomes.

Automatic enrolment means that, rather than having to actively choose to join a pension scheme, staff are put into one by their employer as a matter of course. If they don’t want to be in the pension scheme, they must actively choose to opt out. It’s to encourage people to stay in pension saving.

UK employers have to automatically enrol their staff into a workplace pension if they meet certain criteria.

• Automatic enrolment affects all employers with staff in the UK.

• You must enrol certain staff into a pension scheme.

• You must start doing this from your staging date, though there is an option to postpone automatic enrolment for up to three months.

• You must write to all your staff to tell them how they’ve been affected.

This new legislation which became effective from October 2012 requires all employers to automatically enrol some or all of their workforce into a pension scheme. The Government is phasing this in from October 2012 to 2018 starting with the largest employers first.

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) writes to each employer to notify them of their Staging Date approximately 12 months before with a reminder being sent 3 months before.

If you would like to know your staging date, you need to have your Pay As You Earn (PAYE) reference to hand and either look on The Pension Regulator, or contact Innspired Accountancy Payroll Team on 01246 233108.

Employers have various obligations and responsibilities that they need to complete to comply with the new legislation