You can choose to delay working out who to put into a pension scheme for up to three months for some or all of your team members. This is known as postponement. According to The Pension Regulator (TPR), the maximum postponement period is three months, and the postponement end date is based on:
Their duties start date.
The staff member's first day of employment.
The date a staff member first meets the age and earnings criteria to be put into a pension scheme that you also pay into.
TPR states that the employer must re-assess the employee and add them to the pension immediately if they are eligible, for example, on their postponement end date.
How this previously worked in Paycircle
Prior to September 2024, where team members' start and end dates fell mid-period, they were enrolled in the period following their postponement end date.. For example, a team member with a postponement end date of 20 September 2024 would be enrolled on 01 October 2024.
In situations where applying contributions mid-period following the postponement end date was desirable, you were responsible for manually applying the relevant pension elements and contributions to the team member, resulting in additional manual work being necessary.
How this now works in Paycircle
Rather than adding the team member to the period following the postponement end date, the team members' enrolment into the pension scheme will now occur on the first day of the period in which their postponement end date falls. For example, if the postponement end date is 15 November 2023, they will be enrolled on 1 November 2023.
By following this approach, we now ensure that team members are enrolled within the legislated postponement period as set out by TPR.
Note: Paycircle doesn't support mid-period contribution calculations, so any team member enrolled during the period in which their postponement end dates fall will pay full pension contributions for the entire period, rather than pro-rated based on their postponement end date through the period end.
If pro-rated contributions based on the postponement end date are required, the pro-rated contributions will require manual calculation and manual application to the relevant team member record.