What is automatic enrolment?
Automatic enrolment is a Government initiative to help more people save for later life through a pension scheme at work. It requires employers to enrol their eligible workers into a pension scheme automatically and to pay towards their pensions.
Automatic enrolment was rolled out in stages between October 2012 and February 2018. All employers have been required to offer a workplace pension to eligible workers since February 2018.
For the purpose of automatic enrolment, workers are put into three different categories depending on how much they earn and their age. The categories are eligible jobholders, non-eligible jobholders and entitled workers. Your employer will tell you which category you belong to and what this means for you. Automatic enrolment will mainly affect eligible jobholders. You can find out more about eligible jobholders in the last section on this page.
If you are a new employee who is eligible to join the LGPS, you will generally join the Scheme when you start your job. If you opt out, your employer will be required to re-enrol you into the LGPS approximately every three years on a set re-enrolment date, as long as you are an eligible jobholder.
Your employer may choose not to automatically enrol you if:
- you opted out of the LGPS less than 12 months before the date you are due to be automatically enrolled
- you have given notice of your resignation or retirement, or you have been given notice of dismissal
- your employer believes that you hold a lifetime allowance protection, such as Primary, Enhanced or Fixed Protection. See the Tax page for more information about the lifetime allowance.
Your employer may use postponement to delay automatically enrolling you into the LGPS. You can find out more about postponement below.
You can elect to join the LGPS at any time whether you are an eligible jobholder or not. Contact your pension fund for a form to use to opt into the Scheme.