Government confirms pensions auto-enrolment timetable for small businesses

Businesses with fewer than 50 workers will not have to auto-enrol their employees into workplace pension schemes before June 2015, the Government has confirmed.

The Government announced in November 2011 that it would delay pensions auto-enrolment for employers with fewer than 50 workers, giving them more time to prepare for the changes.

Employers with fewer than 50 workers were originally scheduled to begin pensions auto-enrolment in April 2014.

However, the staging dates have been amended so that employers with between 50 and 249 staff will begin automatically enrolling their staff into pension schemes from this date and those with fewer than 50 staff will begin auto-enrolment from June 2015.

Full details of the amendment to the auto-enrolment provisions, including dates for the increase in minimum employer contributions for defined benefit schemes, are available on XpertHR.