Okay, so my business has staged for auto enrolment but I want to change payroll provider, isn’t that going to be a lot more hassle?
At Dataplan this is a question we are often asked and you may initially think so but in reality no. Company pension schemes have been around for many years and managed payroll services are usually adept at taking on customers with complex and multiple pension schemes.
The process needn’t be a hassle though there are a few more points to consider than usual
- Employee numbers
- Initial employee status
- Information on opt outs
- Ongoing management and reporting
- Employee communication
- Your scheme rules
There isn’t much to be done about the first point. Auto Enrolment affects all employees and this will cause an element of extra work on a transfer. However, this isn’t complex to do assuming that the rules applicable to your version of the scheme are known and there is access to the year to date information
Even if employees have not been eligible to join yet their status needs to be tracked until the point where they may be. This information is required at the point of transfer but should be readily available.
The final point on the transfer is that anyone who has already opted out of the scheme will also need to be re-entered into the scheme each 3 year period so initial opt out dates are required information.
So there is a larger initial piece of work reviewing all of your employees and their status. Our view though is that this stage provides an opportunity to reflect on your employees and ensure that to date you have got it right.
On an ongoing basis you need to make sure your new provider can actually manage the auto enrolment process. If your current service is that the payroll provider undertakes the assessment process on employees (rather than this being done by the pension company) you need to make sure your new provider can do so. This is not a given.
You will also need to make sure that your new provider can produce employee communications if the present provider does so.
Above all though the transfer will mean that a detail understanding of the pension scheme rules and configuration will need to be passed along to the new provider for an effective, seamless and accurate transfer.
At Dataplan we are already taking on new customers who have staged for auto enrolment whether it is NEST or one of the other providers. Having staged over 100 of our own customers so far we are well versed and have ongoing relationships with all of the major providers and their requirements.
We provide an dedicate Auto Enrolment services including
• Administration Service - dealing with the ongoing assessment, management and reporting for your pension scheme.
• Employee Communications – an extra service where you need us to write to your employees, ensuring you stay compliant with the statutory requirements.
So, yes there a few extra steps but at Dataplan we do not believe that this too problematic and having an established Automatic Enrolment process to drop into.
If you’d like to find out how we would go about the process of transferring your business to Dataplan please ask for a copy of our implementation guide.
