Contractual and auto enrolment

Contents

Contractual Enrolment

Under the Regulations that govern the LGPS, most new employees are contractually enrolled into the scheme.

All eligible employees under the age of 75 are contractually enrolled into the LGPS on appointment unless their contract of employment is for less than three months. Please refer to the Notification of New Starters page for details on how you notify the Surrey Pension Fund of your new starters.

As the LGPS is a qualifying scheme for automatic enrolment, employees that are contractually enrolled will be unaffected by automatic enrolment unless they elect to opt out of the scheme.

Auto Enrolment

Employees with a contract of employment for less than three months will not be contractually enrolled into the LGPS, but will be automatically enrolled if they are an eligible job holder, although the employer can issue a postponement notice for up to three months and a day.

Please refer to the Notification of New Starters page for details on how you notify the Surrey Pension Fund of your new starters.

Automatic enrolment sits alongside contractual enrolment and requires that employers, from their staging date or duties start date, continually monitor their workforce and take certain actions in respect of employees who are not contributing to their workplace pension scheme at specified times.

Surrey County Council Pension Fund’s Contracted-out References are:

  • SCON: S2700170K
  • ECON: E3900002R
  • Contracting out ceased in April 2016.
  • LGPS Tax reference number is PSTR00329946RE
  • Surrey County Council Pension Fund’s Pension Scheme Registration number is PSR10276776
  • Surrey County Council Pension Fund’s Pension Scheme Tax reference number is PSTR00328718RB

The Pension Regulator will also ask you for your employer number. This is the number code the Surrey Pension Fund uses to recognise you as an individual employer for our administration.

Categories of worker

All workers will fall into one of three categories for automatic enrolment purposes.

Eligible jobholder

  • Is aged between 22 and State Pension age
  • Is working or ordinarily works in the UK under their contract of employment
  • Has qualifying earnings above the earnings trigger for automatic enrolment i.e. annualised equivalent earnings of more than £10,000 are payable in the relevant pay reference period (each contract of employment should be treated separately)

Non eligible jobholder

  • Is aged between 16 and 21 or State Pension age and 74
  • Is working or ordinarily works in the UK under their contract of employment
  • Has qualifying earnings above the earnings trigger for automatic enrolment i.e. annualised equivalent earnings of more than £10,000 is payable in the relevant pay reference period (each contract of employment should be treated separately)

Or

  • Is aged between 16 and 74
  • Is working or ordinarily works in the UK under their contract of employment
  • Has qualifying earnings equal to or below the earnings trigger for automatic enrolment but above the lower earnings limit i.e. annualised equivalent earnings of equal to or more than £6,240 but equal to or less than £10,000 are payable in the relevant pay reference period (each contract of employment should be treated separately)

Entitled worker

  • Is aged between 16 and 74
  • Is working or ordinarily works in the UK under their contract of employment
  • Does not have qualifying earnings i.e. annualised equivalent earnings of less than £6,240 are payable in the relevant pay reference period (each contract of employment should be treated separately).

The member can elect to join the LGPS at any time whether they are an eligible jobholder or not.

You may choose not to automatically enrol an employee if:

  • They opted out of the LGPS within 12 months of the date they are due to be automatically enrolled
  • They have given notice of their resignation or retirement, or they have been given notice of dismissal
  • You believe that the member holds a lifetime allowance protection, such as Primary, Enhanced or Fixed Protection

Opt Out

If the member is brought into the scheme, they have the right to opt out. The member can obtain an opt out form from the Surrey Pension Fund website or by using our contact details.

Please note that the member cannot complete an opt out form until they have started their employment. The member may also consider the 50:50 section of the scheme, as an alternative to opting out.

If the member opts out of membership of the LGPS you will automatically re-enrol them into the scheme on the “re-enrolment date” if, on that date, they are aged at least 22, under State Pension Age and earning more than £10,000 (current figure), or pro-rata per pay period.

The re-enrolment date is a date chosen by you and will be within a period of 3 months either side of every 3rd anniversary of your staging date.

For further information, please see the Pensions Regulator website or the LGPS Auto Enrolment Guide.

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