You can delay auto-enrolment for up to three months through a process known as postponement. This option is particularly useful for employees on short-term or temporary contracts who are unlikely to remain employed after three months. It can also help align auto-enrolment with your company’s accounting and payroll cycles.

Postponement and Your Duties Start Date
Postponing auto-enrolment does not change your duties start date. If you choose to postpone, you must issue postponement notices to affected employees within six weeks of your duties start date. If you rely on us to send these notices, you’ll need to upload your first pension data file, showing each employee’s assessment category, before we can send them.

Setting Up Your Pension Scheme
Even if you postpone, your workplace pension must be active by your duties start date for us to manage your statutory communications.

Employee Requests During Postponement
If an employee asks to join a pension scheme before the deferral date, you must enrol them. If you enrol them in our scheme, you’ll also need to make employer contributions on their behalf.