Auto-enrolment exemptions
Auto-enrolment for pensions is a worry for many small businesses. The publicity says every employer must enrol their workers in a registered pension scheme, but there are workers and employers who are exempt from this requirement.
If the worker’s earnings are below the trigger point, that person does not have to be included in auto-enrolment. The earnings trigger point for 2014/15 is £10,000 per year, equivalent to the personal allowance. The trigger points for earlier years were also set at the standard personal allowance.
However, for 2015/16 the trigger point for auto-enrolment is frozen at £10,000, it will not move up to £10,600 in line with the personal allowance. This means you need to be careful about the level of salary you pay to yourself and family members employed by your company.
There is also an exemption from auto-enrolment for single-director companies which have no other employees. This only applies where there is just one person on the payroll, not the director plus a spouse, or any other family member.
If you are a one-man company you will receive a notice from the Pensions Regulator, telling you to start auto-enrolment from a certain date (the staging date), but you can claim exemption. We can help you with that.