ARTICLE · 30 JULY 2024

Pensions: Auto Enrolment

Arthur Cox

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The long-awaited Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Act 2024 has been signed into law by the President. This Act will impact every business in the country which has employees.

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The long-awaited Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Act 2024 has been signed into law by the President. This Act will impact every business in the country which has employees.

Employers should begin preparing for auto enrolment. The main initial step is to undertake a gap analysis of the workforce to see who is covered by a pension arrangement and who is not. Employers then need to decide whether they want (i) to include all employees in their occupational pension scheme, (ii) the AE system to apply to all employees, or (iii) to operate both systems in tandem for different cohorts of employees. Once this decision is taken, employees will need to take a number of steps to prepare for AE going live, including reviewing contracts of employment and relevant employment policies and potentially amending existing pension arrangements.

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This article contains a general summary of developments and is not a complete or definitive statement of the law. Specific legal advice should be obtained where appropriate.

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