Towards the end of 2011 it was announced by the Department of Work and pensions that Businesses with under 50 employees are to be given extra time to get ready for auto enrolment.

To recap, under new pensions legislation certain employees (known as eligible jobholders) must be enrolled into a qualifying workplace pension scheme. It was originally planned that smaller employers (with less than 50 staff) would have had to start complying with the new legislation from April 2014. However, under new proposals, smaller employers won’t have to start complying until May 2015 at the earliest.

Medium-sized employers (50 to 3,000 employees) will also be given new staging dates (this is the specific date on which each company has to comply with the new rules).

The announcement can be found on the DWP website.

My article in Critchleys Comment Autumn 2011 provides further information on auto enrolment