Staging for pensions auto-enrolment begins in Northern Ireland

Implementation date: 1 October 2012

The Pensions (No.2) Act (Northern Ireland) 2008 and the Pensions Act (Northern Ireland) 2012 provide that employers must auto-enrol all eligible employees not already participating in a workplace pension scheme into a qualifying pension scheme. The duty to auto-enrol is implemented in stages: the employer's staging date is dependent on its PAYE scheme size and reference. The provisions relating to pensions auto-enrolment in Northern Ireland are largely the same as the auto-enrolment provisions in Great Britain. The Pensions (No.2 Act) (Northern Ireland) 2008 and the Pensions Act (Northern Ireland) 2012 (PDF format, 302K) can be viewed on the UK legislation website.