Do you know who is excluded from all AE duties? And who the employer can choose not to automatically enrol?

Certain people are completely excluded from the employer’s AE duties, such as directors who are not working under an employment contract, trustees - and directors who are the only employee in their company. If all of an employer’s staff are excluded, then the employer will have no AE duties and, if they have received a letter from TPR with a staging date, they should go to our website to tell us that they are ‘not an employer’.

However, for other members of staff who are not excluded, employers may sometimes have an option to choose not to automatically enroll them. This option applies to anyone in their notice period, a director working under an employment contract, those with HMRC tax protection, non-salaried LLP partners, as well as those who have left their employer’s qualifying pension scheme in the last 12 months (those who left over 12 months ago should not be assessed until the employer’s next re-enrolment date).

If the employer does choose not to automatically enroll one of these staff, they still retain the right to opt in or join a pension (except those in their notice period).

Even if an employer can choose not to automatically enroll all of their staff, the employer will still have other AE duties, such as sending out letters to staff and they will still need to complete their Declaration of Compliance.