Help and support
FAQs for Members
About auto enrolment FAQs
Yes, your employer is legally obliged to enrol you, but you can opt out again. Remember, if you do, you won’t receive your employer’s contributions as you build up your pension savings. See the Stopping contributions FAQ section for more about this.
Your employer can postpone auto enrolling you into their workplace pension scheme for up to three months after you first qualify. If they decide to do this, we’ll write to tell you that your auto enrolment has been postponed until your deferral date. This is the date when you’ll be auto enrolled if you qualify.
If you want to join the Scheme before your deferral date, you can ask your employer to put you in. This is called opting in.
It’s possible you didn’t meet the conditions for auto enrolment before. For example, you might not have been earning the right amount to qualify.
Or, your employer might have postponed assessing you for auto enrolment. They’re allowed to do this for up to three months after you first qualify. After that they must enrol you immediately if you qualify. If you think you should have been enrolled sooner, you should raise this with your employer, see How does postponement for auto enrolment work?
If you’re in the Scheme, nothing will change. You can carry on contributing to your pension savings and your employer will carry on contributing too, until you decide to start taking your retirement benefits (or transfer out).
If you’re not in the Scheme, you can ask to join until you reach age 74, as long as you’re an entitled or non-eligible jobholder. See Who is an entitled jobholder? and Who is an eligible jobholder?
In every pay period, your employer will check whether you meet the conditions for auto enrolment. They will assess whether you are:
- aged between 22 and State Pension age
- earning £10,000 a year (£833 a month or £192 a week), or more.
If you meet the conditions, your employer will immediately put you into the Scheme. You’ll start paying contributions and so will your employer. You’ll get a welcome letter confirming you’ve been auto enrolled and explaining how to log in to your account in the Gateway member website.
You’re an entitled jobholder if you’re:
- aged between 16 and 74
- working in the UK
- earning £6,240 or less a year.
You won’t be auto enrolled but you can ask your employer to put you into the Scheme.
Who qualifies to be auto enrolled?
You’ll be auto enrolled if you’re aged between 22 and State Pension age, and earn at least £10,000 a year in a single job.
Can I still be enrolled even if I don’t qualify?
Yes. As long as you’re aged between 16 and 74, you can ask to join your workplace pension scheme. Your employer must put you into the Scheme and make contributions for you.
You’re a non-eligible jobholder if you’re:
- aged 16-21, or between State Pension age and 74
- working in the UK
- earning £6,240-£10,000 a year.
You won’t be auto enrolled but you can ask your employer to put you into the Scheme. In our Scheme, your employer must contribute to your pension savings, even if you wouldn’t normally qualify for employer contributions.
As long as you’re a ‘non-eligible’ or ‘entitled’ jobholder, you can ask your employer to put you into the Scheme. In our Scheme, your employer must contribute to your pension savings, even if you wouldn’t normally qualify for employer contributions.
You qualify to be auto enrolled if you’re:
- aged between 22 and State Pension age
- working in the UK
- earning £10,000 a year (£833 a month or £192 a week), or more, in a single job.
This makes you an ‘eligible jobholder’.
- Your employer will put you into the Scheme as soon as you become eligible to be auto enrolled.
- If you qualify when you join your employer, you’ll be auto enrolled immediately. See Who qualifies to be auto enrolled into a workplace pension?
- Contributions to your pension savings in the Scheme will automatically come out of your pay from the first payroll date after you qualify.
- Your employer contributes from the same date.
- If you pay tax, you get tax relief on your pension contributions.
- Your pension savings are invested to help them grow.
- You can access the pensions savings you have grown with the Scheme at any time from age 55 onwards to provide retirement benefits.
You’ll be able to manage your Scheme membership and monitor your pension savings and online through your own Gateway account. You’ll get a new member account email with details of how to log in.
If you have been enrolled, you always have the option to opt out of the Scheme. You’ll receive an enrolment letter (usually via email) explaining how to do this. But, if you opt out, you won’t build up any pension savings with your employer’s help. See the Stopping contribution FAQs section for more about this.
Auto enrolment was introduced after the UK government found many people had very small, or no, pension savings other than the State Pension.
It’s designed to make sure more people save for their retirement with their employer’s help.
Auto enrolment is a UK government initiative to help more people save for their retirement in a workplace pension scheme, with their employer’s help.
Your employer must offer a pension scheme and contribute towards your pension savings. Your employer has chosen the now:pensions Trust (the ‘Scheme’) as your workplace pension scheme.
You’re automatically included in the Scheme as long as you qualify. See Who qualifies to be auto enrolled into a workplace pension?
You’ve been auto enrolled into your workplace pension scheme. Auto enrolment is a UK government initiative to help more people save for their retirement in a workplace pension scheme, with their employer’s help.
Your employer has chosen the now:pensions Trust (the ‘Scheme’) as your workplace pension scheme.
Here’s a summary of how it works.
- Your employer puts you into the Scheme.
- You pay contributions to build up pension savings.
- Your employer pays contributions too.
- If you pay tax, you get tax relief on your pension contributions.
- Your pension savings are invested to help them grow.
- At any time from age 55 onwards you can use the savings you’ve built up in the Scheme to provide retirement benefits.
You’ll be able to manage your Scheme membership and monitor your pension savings securely through your own online account. You’ll get an email with details of how to log in.
You can opt out of being auto enrolled. Your enrolment email will explain how to do this. But, if you opt out, you won’t build up any pension savings with your employer’s help. See the Stopping Contributions FAQ section for more about this.