Minimum contributions rise to 3% for employers in April

 

Most employers in the UK will see minimum contributions towards their workers’ occupational pension schemes rise from 2% to 3% next month.

Businesses are legally obliged to automatically enrol all staff aged between 22 and state pension age, and earning more than £10,000 a year, into a workplace pension.

The first workers were automatically enrolled in October 2012, with staging dates bringing businesses and their employees into workplace pension schemes for the first time.

For the first four-and-a-half years, employers had to match employees’ minimum contributions of 1% into their workplace pension schemes.

But those minimum contribution rates for employers increased to 2% from 6 April 2018, and will rise again to 3% from 6 April 2019 in what is the last planned stage of a phased rollout.

According to the latest research from the Pensions Regulator, almost 1.45 million employers are making minimum contributions towards their employees’ workplace pensions.

In February 2019, the number of employees saving into workplace pensions passed 10 million for the first time.

Guy Opperman, minister for pensions and financial inclusion, said:

“We are creating a nation of responsible employers who are reassuring their workforce that with their support, they will have a secure retirement.

“We are committed to working closely with them to ensure even more people can benefit from a workplace pension in the future.”

Workplace pensions form part of our payroll service.

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