Most employers think of pension auto enrolment as a one off task they completed years ago. It is not. Roughly every three years you have to go through the process again, putting certain staff back into the pension scheme and telling The Pensions Regulator you have done it. This is cyclical re-enrolment, and a surprising number of small businesses only discover it exists when a letter from the regulator arrives.
What re-enrolment is
Cyclical re-enrolment is a repeat of your original auto enrolment duties, carried out about every three years. Over time, employees opt out of the pension or stop contributing. Re-enrolment is the mechanism that puts eligible staff back in, on the basis that circumstances change and someone who opted out three years ago may be in a different position now. It runs separately from your day to day duty to enrol new starters, which carries on as normal between cycles.
Finding your re-enrolment date
Your re-enrolment date is not fixed for you. You choose it from a six-month window that runs from three months before to three months after the third anniversary of your original staging date or duties start date. For later cycles, it is three years from your previous re-enrolment date. You can pick any day in that window, and many employers simply use the anniversary itself to keep things simple.
The same date must apply to everyone being re-assessed, even if you run more than one pay frequency. If you set up your scheme years ago and are unsure when your window falls, our guide to auto enrolment staging dates and assessments explains how the original dates were set, which is where your re-enrolment date is anchored.
Who you must re-assess
You do not re-assess your whole workforce. You only look at staff who previously opted out, left the scheme, or reduced their contributions below the minimum. Of those, you must re-enrol anyone who meets the eligible jobholder test on your re-enrolment date, meaning they are aged between 22 and State Pension age and earning more than £10,000 a year, which remains the trigger for 2026/27.
You have some discretion. If someone opted out or left the scheme within the 12 months before your re-enrolment date, you can choose whether to re-enrol them or leave them until the next cycle. The same discretion applies to staff who have handed in their notice and to company directors. Anyone who opted out more than 12 months ago, though, must go back in if they meet the criteria.
Why you cannot use postponement
With initial auto enrolment you can postpone assessing a worker for up to three months. That option is not available at re-enrolment. If an employee meets the eligible jobholder criteria on your chosen re-enrolment date, they must be re-enrolled with effect from that date, full stop. This catches out employers who assume the tools they used first time round still apply. The affected staff can, of course, choose to opt out again afterwards, but you must enrol them first.
The re-declaration of compliance
Re-enrolling staff is only half the job. You must also complete a re-declaration of compliance with The Pensions Regulator within five months of the third anniversary of your staging or duties start date. This is a legal requirement even if you had no one to re-enrol. You still have to confirm your re-enrolment date and that you have met your duties. Missing the re-declaration is one of the most common ways employers fall foul of the rules, because they assume no staff to re-enrol means nothing to file.
Having auto enrolment managed by Purely Payroll means the date, the re-assessment and the re-declaration are all tracked and handled for you. You can read more about our auto enrolment service and exactly what it covers.
What happens if you miss it
The Pensions Regulator enforces these duties and does not treat them as optional. It usually starts with a compliance notice telling you to put things right. Ignore that and you face a fixed penalty notice of £400. Continued non-compliance triggers an escalating penalty notice, charged daily at a rate that depends on how many people are in your PAYE scheme, from £50 a day for the smallest employers up to £10,000 a day for the largest. Knowingly providing false information in a re-declaration is a criminal offence.
Not sure when your re-enrolment date falls? We track it for you. Check our pricing or get in touch and we will make sure you never miss a deadline.
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