Extend auto-enrolment pensions to small employers
Last updated: 04:59pm 8 March 2019
Conservative Party Manifesto 2017, p.64We will continue to extend auto-enrolment to small employers and make it available to the self-employed.
Our verdict
Since the early 2000s, a series of governments has grappled with the idea of requiring employers to automatically enrol their employees onto a pension scheme. This was finally legislated for in the Pensions Act 2008 under a previous government, with an implementation date of 2012.
Special conditions were set for small employers, meaning that they didn’t have to implement automatic enrolment until a few years later to help with the financial cost. This date (February 2018) has now passed, and so all small employers are now required to automatically enrol their employees onto a pension scheme. Therefore this policy can be marked ‘done’. We will continue to monitor the government’s work and keep this page updated. Stay tuned for any changes.
Not enough detail?
- Pensions Act 2008 – Gov.uk
- Pensions: Automatic enrolment – 2010 onwards – House of Commons Library
- Pensions Basics, Automatic Enrolment – The Pensions Advisory Service
- About automatic enrolment – The Pensions Regulator
- Workplace pensions – Gov.uk
Related policies
- Support the expansion of auto-enrolled pensions
- Make auto-enrolment pensions available to the self-employed
There's always room for debate
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