About this
guidance
• This guidance is aimed at employers and
professional advisers who will support employers
to comply with the new employer duties.
• It contains essential information that will help
them to ensure they are compliant with the new
employer duties and safeguards.
• This guidance is the third 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. In
conjunction with this guidance, employers should
also read the following guidance:
–– Detailed guidance no. 1 –
Employer duties and defining the workforce
–– Detailed guidance no. 3 –
Assessing the workforce
–– Detailed guidance no. 4 –
Pension schemes
• If an employer chooses to use postponement
to postpone automatic enrolment, in effect they
postpone the assessment of their worker for
a period of up to three months. An employer
considering using postponement should read
Detailed guidance no. 3a – Postponement.
• We recognise that many employers will already
have pension provision for their workers, and
that this will often match or exceed the minimum
requirements contained in the duties.
• In these cases, such employers may just need
to check that the minimum requirements are
covered in their existing processes.
• We have identified 7 steps to prepare for
automatic enrolment, which summarise the main
steps towards achieving compliance. Employers
may find this helpful when navigating this
guidance: www.tpr.gov.uk/7-steps
• It will be helpful to employers to be familiar with
the different categories of workers. These are
explained in detail in Detailed guidance no. 1 –
Employer duties and defining the workforce or a
quick reminder is available in Key Terms on page
14.
• This guidance has been updated as a result of
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)
publishing its consultation on proposed changes
to staging dates, which identified the length of
the transitional period.
• Regardless of when the assessment is carried
out, an employer will know, as a result of the
assessment, whether the worker is an eligible
jobholder, non-eligible jobholder or entitled
worker. Detailed guidance no. 3c – Having
completed the assessment describes the next
steps for an employer once they have completed
the assessment process. Employers should read
3c in conjunction with this guidance.
2
Detailed guidance no. 3b – Transitional period for defined benefit and hybrid schemes v4.0
‘7 steps to
prepare for
automatic
enrolment’
may be helpful