Since Automatic enrolment will affect many more small employers in the next couple of years, there is some confusion regarding those companies with only one or two directors. We recently spoke to The Pensions Regulator who gave us their clarification on this.
The Pensions Regulator will write to ALL employers informing them of their staging date at least 12-18 months before that date. They will expect employers to start planning and getting a pension scheme in place for their workers and to register that pension scheme within 5 months of the Staging date to avoid penalties and breaking the law. If there are only directors in the company, none of whom are workers for the purposes of automatic enrolment, then you can inform The Pensions Regulator by emailing customersupport@autoenrol.tpr.gov.uk stating the following:
1. Confirm your company is not an employer for the purposes of automatic enrolment for one of the following reasons:
* There is only one director and there are no other staff working for the company
* The only people working for the company are directors and none of them has an employment contract
* The only people working for the company are directors and only one of them has an employment contract
* The company has ceased trading (include date ceased)
* If you believe there is another reason why you believe you do not have any automatic enrolment duties, provide a brief explanation
2. The letter code for the company. This is a 10 digit number found on all letters sent from The Pensions Regulator
3. The PAYE scheme number
4. The companies house number
5. The name, email address, address and telephone number of contact at the company
If the company’s circumstances change so that there are at least two people working for the company under contracts of employment then you will need to inform The Pensions Regulator as soon as possible.
