Other pension issues for employers

The automatic enrolment regime, introduced on 1 October 2012, required employers to enrol all eligible jobholders automatically into a qualifying pension scheme (and enrol all non-eligible jobholders who opt in) and pay a minimum level of employer contributions on behalf of those jobholders. The duty was phased in gradually, with the largest employers coming in first. The provision of pension benefits has therefore become an inevitable part of the employment relationship between employer and employee.

Besides their automatic enrolment obligations, employers and their advisers will, among other things, need to be aware of:

•
their legal duties in relation to pension provision (including stakeholder provision and automatic enrolment)
•
the relationship between employees’ contractual pension rights and their pension rights arising under the pension scheme trust
•
the issues that arise where employers wish to make changes to employees’ pension arrangements
•
the statutory obligations on employers to consult their employees on pension changes (both under pensions law and employment law)
•
issues that arise when implementing a salary sacrifice scheme for employee pension contributions
•
issues relating to termination of employment (in particular, the pension

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