Auto Enrolment

Every UK employer has auto enrolment duties from the day their first member of staff starts work. Employees have to be assessed every pay period, eligible workers enrolled into a qualifying pension scheme, contributions calculated and paid over on time, and a declaration of compliance filed with The Pensions Regulator. Get any of it wrong and the Regulator can issue fixed and escalating penalty notices — and it does.

Because our auto enrolment service runs inside the payroll itself, nothing falls between two stools. The same team that calculates your gross-to-net handles the pension assessment, the deductions, the opt-outs and the paperwork, so your workplace pension simply happens — correctly, every pay run.

What Auto Enrolment Requires of Employers

Auto enrolment is not a one-off setup task. Employers must assess every worker at every pay reference period against age and earnings thresholds, enrol those who qualify, process opt-ins and opt-outs within statutory time limits, keep records for six years, and re-enrol eligible leavers roughly every three years. Each of those steps has its own deadline, and The Pensions Regulator monitors compliance through the declarations employers are required to file.

Pension Scheme Set-Up and Ongoing Management

If you are employing staff for the first time, we help you choose and set up a qualifying workplace pension scheme, configure contribution levels that meet the statutory minimums, and register everything correctly from the outset. If you already have a scheme, we take over the running of it: assessments, enrolments, contribution files uploaded to the provider, and the correspondence that comes back.

Employee Assessment Every Pay Run

Assessment is where most auto enrolment errors happen, because thresholds are applied per pay reference period and staff move between categories as their earnings fluctuate. Our payroll software assesses every employee automatically each time payroll runs, and our CIPP-qualified team reviews the exceptions — new starters, postponements, workers crossing an earnings threshold — so the right people are enrolled at the right time.

Declarations of Compliance and Re-Enrolment

Within five months of your duties start date you must file a declaration of compliance with The Pensions Regulator, and every three years you must run cyclical re-enrolment and re-declare. These are the filings the Regulator actually checks, and missing them triggers penalty notices even where the underlying pension is running correctly. We diarise, prepare and file them for you.

Salary Sacrifice and Contribution Planning

Run well, a workplace pension can save money as well as satisfy the law. We advise on salary sacrifice arrangements that reduce employer and employee National Insurance, design contribution structures above the statutory minimum where that suits your recruitment goals, and make sure the payroll treatment of whatever you choose is correct.

What You Get With Acumon

• Automatic assessment of every employee, every pay reference period
• Qualifying pension scheme selection and set-up for new employers
• Enrolments, opt-ins and opt-outs processed within statutory time limits
• Contribution calculations, deductions and provider file uploads every pay run
• Declarations of compliance prepared and filed with The Pensions Regulator
• Three-yearly cyclical re-enrolment handled and re-declared on time
• Salary sacrifice scheme design and payroll implementation
• Statutory six-year record keeping maintained for you

Why Acumon for Auto Enrolment?

• All payroll staff hold Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals (CIPP) qualifications
• Manages payrolls in-house for 250+ companies
• All payroll team members are based in the UK
• Auto enrolment runs inside the payroll process itself — assessment, deductions and declarations in one place

Get a Fixed-Fee Quote

Tell us what you need and we'll come back within one business day with a clear scope and a fixed price — no hourly-rate surprises. Call 020 8567 3451 or use the form and we'll be in touch.