Automatic enrolment

By law, every employer with at least one member of staff must provide a workplace pension scheme and enrol those who are eligible into the scheme – this is called Automatic Enrolment.

What is automatic enrolment?

Automatic enrolment is a Government initiative to help more people save for later life through a pension scheme at work. Employers are required to enroll their eligible workers into a pension scheme automatically and to pay towards their pensions.

All employers have been required to offer a workplace pension to eligible workers since February 2018.

For the purpose of automatic enrolment, workers are put into three different categories depending on how much they earn and their age. The categories are 

• eligible jobholders, 
• non-eligible jobholders and 
• entitled workers. 

Automatic enrolment will mainly affect eligible jobholders. An eligible jobholder:

• is age 22 or over
• is under State Pension age
• has earnings of over £10,000 a year (2024/25 figure)

What do employers have to do?

Employers are required to enrol new (eligible) employees into the scheme when they start their job. 

If an eligible jobholder opts out of the scheme, the employer is required to re-enrol them into the LGPS approximately every three years on a set re-enrolment date.

Employers may choose not to automatically enrol an employee if:

• they opted out of the LGPS less than 12 months before the date they are due to be automatically enrolled
• they have given notice of resignation or retirement, or they have been given notice of dismissal
• the employer believes that they hold a lifetime allowance protection, such as Primary, Enhanced or Fixed Protection.

Employers may also use postponement to delay automatically enrolling employees into the LGPS. 

Where to find more help

Please refer to the technical guide on Automatic Enrolment on https://lgpsregs.org/employer-resources/guidesetc.php 

You can read the Pension Regulator’s guidance https://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/en/employers/new-employers/im-an-employer-who-has-to-provide-a-pension/declare-your-compliance/ongoing-duties-for-employers-

Or follow the Pension Regulator’s smart guide to auto enrolment

Formal information 

You may need the following information when you go through your Automatic Enrolment process: 

• Oxfordshire County Council Pension Fund’s Contracted-out References under March 2016 are S2700165T and E3900002R. Contracting out ceased April 2016.
• Oxfordshire County Council Pension Fund’s Pension Scheme Registration number is PSR10079154.
• Oxfordshire County Council Pension Fund’s Pension Scheme Tax reference number is PSTR00328822RP.

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

Please contact pension.employers@oxfordshire.gov.uk if you are not sure what your employer number is.