Pension regulations say you must upload your first pension data file after your duties start date.

If you upload your first file too early – before this date – you could get errors such as:

• incorrect worker communications

• the wrong contributions being collected, or

• incorrect dates for workers’ opt-out windows.

In every pay period after your duties start date you’ll need to upload a pension data file to now:u. This file should contain details of your workers’ payments in to their pension savings, and your payments on their behalf.

If you’ve asked us to manage your statutory auto enrolment communications, uploading a pension data file will trigger tailored assessment, enrolment or postponement communications for each worker. 

Before your next pay period, download your employee action file to see information about workers who’ve opted out, started or stopped paying in, or changed how much they pay. You’ll need to put these changes into your payroll so they’re reflected the next time you upload a pension data file. 

You set up your first payroll as part of setting your organisation up on now:u. Run through the steps on how to do this in our guide.

now:pensions is a net pay pension scheme. You, the workplace, take pension contributions out of workers’ gross pay and pay them into now:pensions before income tax is deducted.  

You’ll need to: 

• work out pension contributions on gross (before tax) pay, and 

• calculate and deduct your workers’ income tax after you’ve taken their pension contributions. 

As a result, your workers who are taxpayers won’t pay any income tax on their pension contributions. They automatically get full tax relief. 

Workers who don’t earn enough to pay tax don’t normally get tax relief. The government has set up a scheme to pay a tax top-up to these workers, so they don’t miss out. HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) will contact workers who aren’t taxpayers directly about this. Payments are expected to begin in 2026 for the 2024/25 tax year.

Self-employed workers will need to claim tax relief through their annual self-assessment tax return.

What other types of tax relief are there? 

There’s another type of tax relief arrangement called relief at source. In this kind of arrangement the workplace takes workers’ pension contributions from their pay, after income tax has been taken off. 

The pension scheme then claims the tax relief from HMRC each month, adding the basic tax rate of 20% to workers’ contributions.

Higher or additional-rate taxpayers can claim back the rest of their tax relief from HMRC through their annual Self-Assessment tax return. 

Make sure you set up your tax relief correctly

For now:pensions, you must set up your workplace pension for tax relief on the net pay basis. Otherwise, your workers’ contributions won’t be worked out correctly and you could end up having to compensate for any losses they may incur. If you’re not sure how to do this, please ask us for help using webchat.

As an employer, you are responsible for assessing each of your workers aged at least 16 and under 75, to identify which category of worker they belong to. This will help you to determine what steps you need to take for each worker. The Pensions Regulator has additional guidance that can help you.

However, your payroll team or payroll provider is best placed to assess whether your workers qualify to be auto enrolled into your workplace pension. This can help speed up the process and reduce the risk of you missing contributions.

now:pensions doesn’t assess your workers.

Pensionable earnings is the definition of pay you use to work out pension contributions, for:  

• your workers  
• you, as their workplace contributing to their pension savings.   

The minimum basis for working out auto enrolment pension contributions is qualifying earnings. But, you may choose to use one of the other definitions. You can use different definitions of pensionable earnings for all or different groups of workers.  

Types of pensionable earnings

You can find out more about contributions on The Pensions Regulator’s website.

Basic earnings include your basic pay and any statutory sick pay, statutory maternity pay, statutory paternity pay and statutory adoption pay. Workplaces can exclude things like bonuses, overtime and commission.

Total earnings are all earnings for a pay period including wages, commission, overtime, bonuses, performance-related pay and any other earnings. When a workplace adopts this definition for all or a section of their workforce, contributions are based from the first pound earned.

A four-digit code that distinguishes one payroll from another. You need to put this code in when you’re setting up your payroll, and when you upload your pension data files.

We call the payroll code PAYCODE in our file format.

If you need to create a new payroll code for now:u, it must:

• contain four characters

• be alphanumeric (contain only letters and numbers), and

• be case-sensitive.

For example, your first payroll code could be P001. To add more payrolls, set the payroll code to the next number in the sequence. Here’s an example of payroll codes for a workplace with six payrolls.

• P001 for monthly payrolls

• P002 for weekly payrolls

• P003 for temporary/casual staff

• P004 for permanent staff

• P005 – office based in London

• P006 – office based in Manchester
  

If this workplace needed to add another payroll – for example, for an office based in Glasgow – the new payroll code would be P007.

A pay period is the earnings period in your payroll. For example: 1-12 for a monthly payroll or 1-52 for a weekly payroll.

You don’t need to create pay periods as these will automatically be created when you complete the first file import into now:u.

We call the pay period PAYPERIOD in our file format.

The first day of the pay period for your pension data file You’ll need to put this date in when you’re setting up a payroll and each time you upload a pension data file.

We call the pay period start date PAYSTART in our file format.

This is how often you run your payroll, for example: weekly, fortnightly or monthly.

You can choose from:

• weekly (once every 7 days)
• fortnightly (once every 14 days)
• monthly (once every calendar month)
• quarterly (once every 3 calendar months)
• 4-weekly (once every 28 days)
• 4-4-5 (two four-week payrolls followed by a five-week payroll covering 13 weeks altogether – you can have four 4-4-5 payroll sequences in a year).

You’ll need to select this from the drop-down menu when you set up a payroll.

We call the payroll frequency PAYFREQ in our file format.

This is the last date you can upload a pension data file for a particular payroll. You have to put this date in when you’re setting the payroll up.

You can change the data in your pension data files as many times as you need to before this date. You can’t change your pension data files after this date. So you need to make sure all the data in your files is correct and uploaded accurately before your payroll’s processing date. Please check your payroll and correct any errors well before the processing date.

Your ER code, also known as your company code, is a unique four-character code now:pensions uses to identify your company when you sign your Participation Agreement with us.

You can find this code in now:u and on any communications we send you.

A PSR number is allocated to workplace pension schemes by The Pensions Regulator. It’s an eight-digit number starting with 1.

Our Pension Scheme Registry Number is 12005124. You’ll need this number to complete your declaration of compliance.

An EPSR is a unique identifier for an employer. It’s allocated by the trustees or managers of personal pension or multi-employer workplace pension schemes. As an employer, you need this number to register with The Pensions Regulator.

Your EPSR number for the NOW: Pensions Trust (‘now:pensions’) is your employer code.

You can find this code in now:u and on any communications we send you. You’ll need it to complete your declaration of compliance.