5. Employee Pension Details

Navigation: Pay menu --> Pensions screen

The Employee Pension screen has been changed to show the following key auto enrolment details. This data is used to report the employee’s pension status.

Staging Date - The date is set on the Company screen and is the date the company is obligated to comply with auto enrolment regulations. Read-only.
Date of Birth - As set on the employee details screen. This is important in establishing a workers status with regard to the regulations. Read-only
PRP Start Date and PRP End Date. These fields are used in the worker assessment process where workers are paid in arrears (usually applicable to timesheet based workers) The dates to use in the assessment routine are the pay period that the pay date falls into, NOT the period the work was carried out.

for example the following pay periods are set up

Period 1 26/03/2018 - 01/04/2018 Paid 06/04/2018
Period 2 02/04/2018 - 08/04/2018 Paid 13/04/2018

Because the workers are paid in arrears the PRP Start Date for Week 1 would be 02/04/2018 and the PRP End Date would be 08/04/2018 as this is the period the pay date 07/04/2018 falls in.

An example of the real effect this would have is that a worker with a Postpone Until Date 04/04/2018 would be enrolled in week 1 rather than week 2 (providing the other eligibility requirements were met)

It should be noted that when assessing eligibility for week 1, it is still the earnings for the period 26/03 - 06/04 that are used

Postponement Date - Enrolment can be postponed for up to 3 months based on rules set out in legislation. If this is to apply the end date of the postponement period should be entered here. The auto enrolment assessment date for the worker will be the day after this dat
Opted out Date - Within a limited time period after enrolment the employee can opt out of the scheme and have their contributions refunded. The date should be entered here. This will automatically end any current pension scheme for the employee and refund any deductions taken.*
Terminate Date - Even after the opt-out period the employee can resign from the scheme at any time. This field will be used in future in order to determine when the worker requires re-assessment and re-enrolment into a scheme
Notice Date - Any worker (aged 16 or more and less than 75) under the new legislation can ask their employer to be made an active member of a pension scheme (even during a postponement period). The date a joining notice is received is entered here.

Figure 4.1

Also included in this screen is the capability to override the legislative default rates.

Override Contributions – This field is only enabled or relevant where the employee has been entered onto a ‘Basic Scheme’ as described in section 1. As stated the deductions for this scheme will be between the Lower and Upper earnings thresholds and at the rates set out in legislation. However it is foreseen that there will be times where although deductions are to be made between these thresholds, they may be made at a higher rate.

In the normal scenario where an employee is entered onto a Basic Scheme and no overrides are entered the user will not be able to add any contributions to the record as these will be calculated automatically based on the legislation,

Figure 4.2

*A worker has 1 month to opt out of auto enrolment from the time they receive their joining notification. Because the exact period of time is therefore ambiguous InPay will automatically refund contributions to an AE scheme within 3 months of the Opted Out Date. The refunds are created by the system as statutory overrides and can be edited/deleted through the Pay -> Statutory Override screen

It should be noted that if the worker wishes to leave the scheme beyond 1 month of notification, a Terminate date should be entered against the worker, not an opt-out date, and no refunds given