Auto-enrolment – information for employers

Workplace pension rules, timescales and employers’ auto-enrolment duties

Published: 15 Dec 2025

Key points

Understanding how auto enrolment works
Choosing a provider and setting up payroll services
Auto enrolment – what you have to do and how it benefits you
Duty start date, timescales and what to do when

How does auto enrolment affect my business?

Auto enrolment is a process that the government introduced in 2012. It’s intended to ensure that all employees who are eligible for a workplace pension are enrolled in their employer’s scheme without having to take action themselves. By law, every employer with one or more employees needs to follow this process and make contributions for enrolled scheme members.

What are the benefits for me and my employees?

The idea behind auto enrolment is that individuals get help to save for their retirement – but there are benefits for the business, too. A well-run scheme enhances your reputation as an employer and helps you recruit and retain the right people. And if your employees understand the scheme and how it can help them, they can enjoy a greater sense of financial security – which in turn helps combat stress and increases motivation. All of this can help to maintain good performance and even reduce absence.

Aviva can help you with communications and information to help your employees stay engaged with their scheme and remain aware of its benefits to them.

Which employees need to be auto enrolled?

You’ll need to make sure all employees are enrolled who are:

between 22 and the State Pension age
earning over £10,000 a year
working in the UK

Some employees who aren’t eligible for auto enrolment may also choose to join your scheme. If they do, you’ll need to make at least the minimum contribution for them, too.

What will it cost my business?

In terms of contributions, you’ll need to pay a minimum of 3% of an employee’s qualifying salary on their behalf. The employee themselves contributes at least 5%.

You also need to think about the cost of setting up a scheme – including any professional advice you may wish to take – as well as ongoing costs such as payroll processes and your pension provider’s services.

We explain all of this in detail on our Costs you need to consider page.

What do I need to do when?

Your workplace pension needs to start the same day as your first employment contract – your ‘duties start date’ – so you need to start planning two months before your duties begin. Our setting up a workplace pension page goes through everything in detail, but you should start by choosing a pension provider, making sure you know how much help they’ll provide with auto enrolment.

You then need to assess who’s eligible to be enrolled and decide on the level of your contributions. The enrolment process itself needn’t be complicated – with Aviva, you just need to upload a file using our online management system.

After this is done, you need to write to your employees and complete a declaration of compliance. Again, you can find out how this works on our setting up a workplace pension page.

How would the timescales and deadlines run?

The below example assumes that your first employee starts on 1 January 2026.

2 months before your duty start date (DSD)	Set up your scheme	1 November 2025
Duty start date	Duties begin – enrol staff	1 January 2026
6 weeks after DSD	Deadline for writing to all eligible staff	12 February 2026
3 months after DSD	Deadline if you’ve chosen to postpone assessing your workforce	31 March 2026
5 months after DSD	Deadline for your declaration of compliance	31 May 2026
Ongoing	Regular duties (Assess staff, make contributions, deal with opt-outs, keep records)	Every time you pay staff
18 months after DSD	Recertify your scheme	1 July 2027
3 years after DSD	Re-enrol all eligible staff	1 January 2029

What about my ongoing duties after set-up?

As well as making sure regular contributions continue, you’ll need to assess your staff every pay period and add any employees who have just become eligible. You also need to remove any members from the scheme who have opted out of it – they can do this within one month of enrolment.

Employees can also ask you to stop contributions, though you can't suggest this to them. If they ask, then you can stop contributions, and then they are covered by your next cyclical re-enrolment date. You need to keep a record of the request.

By law, you also need to keep accurate records – not least because you need to re-certify your compliance every 18 months, and re-enrol all affected employees every three years.

You can read all about this on our Setting up a workplace pension and Re-enrolment pages.

What happens if I miss a deadline?

It’s crucial that your scheme stays compliant so that you can avoid some potentially hefty penalties and fines from The Pensions Regulator.

We’ve pulled out some important points from auto enrolment law and legislation, to explain what you need to do to make sure your scheme stays compliant. On that page you can also find how to get help if you’re at risk of missing a deadline or failing to comply.