Workplace pension duties: ongoing compliance

Auto-enrolment is not a one-time setup. Once you have staged and enrolled your eligible employees, a set of ongoing compliance duties continues for as long as you employ people. The Pensions Regulator monitors compliance and can issue substantial fines for persistent breaches. Understanding what the ongoing obligations are — and having a system to manage them — prevents compliance failures from accumulating.

Ongoing assessment

Every time you run payroll, you must assess each employee against the auto-enrolment eligibility criteria: are they aged 22 to state pension age, earning above the trigger, and working in the UK? New starters must be assessed on their first payday. Employees who were previously not eligible may become eligible — if someone's earnings increase above the trigger, they must be enrolled from the next assessment date.

Opt-out processing

An employee who opts out of the pension scheme must be processed correctly. The opt-out notice must be received from the employee (not the employer) and must be in writing. Contributions collected after opt-out must be refunded to the employee within a specified timeframe. The employee's record should reflect their opted-out status and the date of opt-out.

Re-enrolment every three years

Every three years, employees who have previously opted out or left the scheme must be re-enrolled if they are still eligible. The re-enrolment date is any date within a three-month window around the third anniversary of your staging date. Re-enrolled employees can opt out again.

Re-declaration of compliance

Within five months of your re-enrolment date, you must file a re-declaration of compliance with The Pensions Regulator. This confirms that you have met your re-enrolment duties. Failure to re-declare is treated as non-compliance and can trigger a fixed penalty notice.

Contribution accuracy

The minimum contributions must be paid on time every month. Contributions must reach the pension provider by the deadline specified in your scheme agreement — typically within a few days of payroll. Late contributions are a breach that the Pensions Regulator takes seriously, particularly where the delay is systematic.

Record-keeping

You must keep records of: your staging date, the pension scheme details, each employee's enrolment date, opt-out notices, contributions paid, and re-enrolment dates. Scheme records must be kept for six years; opt-out notices must be kept for four years.

Scheme eligibility

Not all pension schemes qualify for auto-enrolment. The scheme must meet certain standards: contribution rates must meet the minimums, and the scheme must be registered with HMRC. If you change pension providers, ensure the new scheme qualifies before transferring employees.

See our pension auto-enrolment guide for the initial setup obligations, and salary sacrifice schemes for how salary sacrifice interacts with auto-enrolment.

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