An Explanation of How to Apply Postponement

Workplace pensions reform – detailed guidance

Postponement

An explanation of how to apply postponement

3

August 2012 v4.0

1

Employer duties and defining the workforce

2

Getting ready

3

Assessing the workforce

An introduction to the new employer duties

First steps to prepare for the new employer duties

How to identify the different categories of workers

3a – Postponement

3b – Transitional period for defined

benefit (DB) and hybrid schemes

3c – Having completed the assessment

4

Pension schemes

Pension schemes under the new employer duties

5

Automatic enrolment

6

Opting in and joining

7

Opting out

8

Safeguarding individuals

9

Keeping records

An explanation of the automatic enrolment process

How to process pension scheme membership

outside of the automatic enrolment process

How to process ‘opt outs’ from workers

who want to leave a pension scheme

The new safeguards for workers

Records that must be kept by law under the new

employer duties

a

About this

guidance

• This guidance is aimed at professional advisers

and employers with in-house pensions

professionals. Trustees, managers and pension

scheme providers should also familiarise

themselves with how postponement operates.

• This guidance is the second in a subset of

guidance on the assessment of a worker. The

process of making the assessment is described

in Detailed guidance no. 3 – Assessing the

workforce. To understand the content in this

guidance, employers should have already read

the following guidance in this series:

– Detailed guidance no. 1 –

Employer duties and defining the workforce

– Detailed guidance no. 2 –

Getting ready

– Detailed guidance no. 3 –

Assessing the workforce

• If an employer has an existing defined benefit

or hybrid pension scheme and the worker meets

certain conditions, the employer can choose to

defer assessment of that worker until the end of

a transitional...