What tasks should you be completing if your staging date is in 2015?

What tasks should you be completing if your staging date is in 2015?

There are 15 tasks you need to do before you stage to ensure your business is prepared for this. That’s one of the reasons The Pensions Regulator (TPR) recommends beginning your preparations at least 12 months in advance.

As 2014 comes to a close, you should have a clear picture of how your processes are going to change to accommodate assessing employees, communicating to them and how opt in and opt out requests will be handled.

Tasks for 2015 stagers:

1. You’ve chosen your pension scheme(s)

Have you confirmed that this is compliant with auto enrolment rules?

2. Assessment and communications

You should know how will be carried out and have all your systems and employees in place and familiar with your new procedures.

3. Test runs

Have you completed your test run to ensure all your systems are working correctly? It’s best to do this a couple of months in advance to give yourself time to fix any issues or raise any questions in plenty of time.

4. Have you prepared your letters to your employees?

It’s a legal requirement to communicate about auto enrolment to your employees and to notify them when needed. Make sure you know who is and how this is going to be carried out.

5. Did you know about the declaration of compliance?

This is another one of those legal requirements that you must fill complete. This time, you’ll need to submit this to confirm your business is compliant and notify TPR. The best thing about this document, is that if you fill it out as you make progress in your auto enrolment journey, it will save you time when it comes to submission.

What should I do, if I haven’t completed any of these actions?

• Don’t panic.

o TPR, NEST and IRIS all have s lots of helpful guidance and software available to help you become compliant.

• Assess yourself with a free auto enrolment health check with IRIS

o Get yourself an auto enrolment health check to fully understand your responsibilities.

• Take the next step

o Once you’ve completed your health check and consulted TPR’s website, it’s time to make your choice on your pension scheme and assessment and communication processes.

Auto enrolment is the biggest change to pensions in decades and there is a lot to do to safeguard compliance. There are fixed and escalating penalties for non-compliance so get your preparations in place in plenty of time, but most of all – don’t panic. There are solutions and guidance to help your business complete your introduction to auto enrolment.

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