Automatic enrolment (often called ‘auto-enrolment’) is a legal requirement in the UK. It means employers must:
Re-enrol employees every three years.These obligations apply regardless of whether your business has just one employee in the UK or many.
You must enrol any UK-based worker who:
Employees have the right to opt out – but only they can make that decision. You cannot opt out on their behalf, and they must be re-enrolled every three years.
You can choose from several workplace pension providers. A popular option is NEST, the government-backed scheme open to all employers. However, there are many others.
Please note: Choosing a pension provider is a regulated activity in the UK. We cannot advise on which pension scheme to use, but once you have chosen one, we can assist with set-up and ongoing compliance.
The legal minimum contributions (as a percentage of qualifying earnings) are:
Qualifying earnings are monthly gross pay over GBP 520 and capped at GBP 4,189 (2024/25 tax year).
Employers can contribute more than the minimum or apply the contributions to total earnings instead of just qualifying earnings – we can help with the calculations.
You can choose how pension contributions are made:
We recommend seeking financial advice before setting up a salary exchange scheme. We can help model the cost impact and run calculations.
Employees may ask you to pay contributions into their private pension instead. Yes, this is possible – but it must be managed carefully:
We help you navigate these commercial and compliance considerations.
We offer end-to-end support for overseas employers managing UK-based staff:
We also integrate pension processing with our UK payroll services, ensuring seamless compliance.
We specialise in supporting multi-national businesses with a UK workforce. Our clients are typically overseas-based groups that:
All we do is payrolls and HR compliance for international businesses – we understand your position, and we know how to help.
Yes, auto-enrolment applies from your first employee.
Yes, but only if the employee has opted out of the workplace pension. You must still set up the workplace pension scheme and enrol them first.
You’ll need to speak with a regulated financial adviser – we can provide an accountant’s perspective but cannot advise on which scheme to choose.
You don’t have to make contributions, but you must automatically re-enrol them every three years.
Yes, many employers choose to pay more than the 3% minimum.
You lower the employee’s salary and pay the equivalent into their pension – this saves both income tax and NICs. We can help calculate and implement this.
Yes, we can prepare the required letters and guidance to meet your legal obligations.
Let us take care of your UK workplace pension compliance so you can focus on running your international workforce. Get in touch to find out how we can help.
Senior Manager
Management Reporting
Assistant Manager
Payroll
