01 May 2018

Minimum pension contributions will soon be increasing

You will be aware that by law, every employer must make increases to the minimum contributions for their automatic enrolment pension scheme. The minimum contribution will also increase for employees.

The Pensions Regulator has already communicated these increases to employers, with a reminder of the dates that this comes into effect. We also wrote to all employers, who were not already meeting these levels, in July 2017 with a reminder of this regulatory requirement.

If you are already paying above the minimum amounts or are not using your scheme for auto enrolment then you don’t need to take action.

Minimum pension contributions
Effective dates Employer minimum contribution Employee minimum contribution Total minimum contribution
Currently until 5 April 2018  1% 1% 2% 
6 April 2018 to 5 April 2019 2% 3% 5% 
6 April 2019 onwards  3% 5% 8% 

The table below shows the minimum contributions that you and your employees will need to pay and the dates when they must increase, as set out by the government. You and your employees can choose to pay more than the minimum if you wish.

From 6 April 2018, and then again from 6 April 2019, the way you calculate and pay contributions into your pension scheme must be changed to reflect the increases above. It’s your responsibility to make sure these increases are implemented and you should speak to your payroll provider to ensure they’re applied correctly.

Support

You may want to communicate with your employees to tell them that contributions are increasing and to encourage them to continue saving for their future.

To help you do this we’ve put together some sample communications that you can download below:

Further information on contribution increases, and the steps you need to take to set up these increases, can be found at www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/increase