Auto-enrolment postponement – an employer guide

As an employer, you have auto-enrolment legal duties from the moment you employ your first member of staff. These cover things like working out who to put in a pension and declaring compliance to The Pensions Regulator. 

You can delay the assessment and enrolment of your employees into your workplace pension for up to three months. This is called postponement, and you can use it:

• on your duties start date 
• on a new employee’s start date 
• on the day an employee turns 22, or they start earning over the auto-enrolment threshold. 

It’s there to give you the flexibility to enrol your employees at a time that suits the needs of your business. Auto-enrolment postponement might be helpful if: 

• you need more time to set up your pension scheme
• you want to align your enrolment date with your payroll
• your employees have to complete a probationary period 
• you have employees on short-term contracts.

It’s important to remember that postponing auto-enrolment doesn’t mean you are delaying your duties start date, and you can only postpone for a maximum of three months. You’ll need to write to your employees with their new assessment date and opt in rights within six weeks. 

Your employees still have the right to opt into your workplace pension scheme during the postponement period. You’ll have to enrol them straight away if they’re eligible. 

Once you reach the last day of the auto-enrolment postponement period, you’ll need to assess each employee. This is to work out if they’re eligible for auto-enrolment. 

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) asks all employers to keep a record of:

• which employees were postponed 
• notification letters sent to your employees 
• enrolment assessment outcomes. 

You’ll still need to complete the declaration of compliance with TPR during your postponement period.