Eligible jobholders’ automatic enrolment letter

The Pensions Acts 2008 and 2011 require every employer to automatically enrol their workers into a qualifying workplace pension scheme, if they are not already in one, and to mandatorily contribute to that pension. Our letter enables you to write to those workers that have to be automatically enrolled as it’s a requirement that you give them statutorily prescribed information about automatic enrolment. 

Categories of worker

You must write to both those workers who are going to be automatically enrolled and those who are not. Workers fall into three categories: eligible jobholders (must be automatically enrolled), non-eligible jobholders (can choose to be enrolled by opting in) and entitled workers (must still be given access to a pension scheme). Our Eligible Jobholders’ Automatic Enrolment Letter is for use with the first category. It defines who an eligible jobholder is, and this will probably include the majority of your workforce.

Letter requirements

You can use our template letter as it is or adapt it. You might need to change some elements to make it accurate for your business or pension scheme and if you are using a pension provider, you may need information from them to complete it. However, be careful not to change too much as some of the information in the letter is required to be given by law. Where the scheme is a personal pension scheme, you also need to provide the terms and conditions of the contract that the worker is being entered into to become an active member of the scheme. Our letter has been written with a defined contribution scheme in mind as that’s the most common type. If your scheme is a defined benefit one, you’ll need to make changes to the letter. It’s also been written on the basis that your workers are paid monthly and have an annual salary. If your workers are paid differently, again, you’ll need to adapt it.

Automatic enrolment date

As you could be sending our letter before or after the worker’s automatic enrolment date, we’ve given you the option of selecting future or past tense. The automatic enrolment date is the date a new worker starts working for you, or the date an existing worker becomes eligible to be automatically enrolled.