Under the Pensions Act 2008, every employer in the UK must put certain staff into a workplace pension scheme and contribute towards it. The Department of Work and Pensions has confirmed that it will support proposals to expand Automatic Enrolment (AE).
The bill proposes to:
- Abolish the lower earnings limit for contributions (you currently need to be earning over £833.33 gross per month or £192.30 gross per week to be Automatically Enrolled).
- Reduce the age for being automatically enrolled to 18 (it is currently 22 years old)
The bill will not result in immediate change and there will be a statutory requirement to consult and report before any implementation.