Auto Enrolment: Employee Settings

This page is designed to give advice and guidance when adjusting the employee settings for Auto Enrolment.

The details below can be found in: ‘Employee’ > ‘Employee Maintenance’ > ‘AE Pension’

When setting up the AE company settings if you said ‘Yes‘ to the prompt reading ‘Do you want to set all employees in this company to have their AE Pension Set’ then your employees should already have your AE scheme applied to their ‘Employee Maintenance‘ settings. If you said ‘No‘ then you will need to set up the employees individual pension details in this tab. The example to the right shows an employee that does not have their pension settings set.
If you need to add in a pension against the employee select ‘Add New’ near the bottom.

If you have setup an auto enrolment pension for the company in ‘Company > Pensions‘ this will appear in the ‘Fund Name’ drop-down box. From this fund name drop down box select the Auto Enrolment scheme that you would like to use for this employee
(Note that the default Auto Enrolment scheme will be automatically populated when creating a new employee).
Enter a ‘Scheme Ref’ if required.
(The reference for this employee’s pension scheme. This is something that would be provided by your pension provider if it is needed.)
Tick the ‘Employee/Employer %’ boxes if you want to use a percentage when taking pension deductions. Or alternatively, leave the boxes un-ticked to use a static value. Changing these settings here will only affect this specific employee.
If the employee decides they would like to make additional contributions into their pension fund then you can tick the ‘Employee Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVC)’ option and specify the amount/percentage value required.
If your AE scheme is a salary sacrifice pension then you can tick the ‘Salary Exchange’ check box. You can then enter the value that the employer re-invests out of their NI savings in the adjacent box.

Opting In/Out
The details below can be found in: ‘Employee’ > ‘Employee Maintenance’ > ‘AE Pension’
Employees can choose to either opt in or out of an Auto Enrolment pension. If an employee chooses to opt in or opt out of the pension then you can record the dates here.

Opt-Out Reference
Some pension providers may issue an opt-out reference if an employee opts-out and in some cases they require this reference when you communicate the final contributions for the employee. If you have been provided with an opt-out reference then you should enter it.

Opt-Out Date
The employee will have a six week window (new from April 2014) where they can opt out of the Auto Enrolment scheme. If they opt out within that time then enter the date on this screen. QTAC will refund any employee and employer contributions in the next pay run.

Opt-In Received
If the employee is a non-eligible jobholder but wishes to enrol into the employers Auto Enrolment scheme, then they can provide the employer with an opt-in request. Enter the date that this request was received on this screen.

Postponement End Date
If you have postponement applied then a selection of postponement end dates will appear in this list. The default date will be that which you configured in ‘Company Maintenance‘.

Date Employee Last Opted-Out
If the employee has opted-out of an Auto Enrolment scheme, then provide this date.

Postponement End Date
If the employee’s enrolment has been postponed and they are still within the postponement period, then provide the last day of the postponement period here.

AE Brought Forward section
If you have just started using QTAC and the company has already staged, then the ‘AE Brought Forward’ section needs to be completed for each employee.

Employee Already Paying into Auto Enrolment Pension Scheme
Check this flag if the employee already pays into an Auto Enrolment scheme. This will prevent postponement occurring in the first payment to the employee.

Employee Has Paid into Qualifying Scheme Before Staging Date
If the employee paid into a qualifying scheme prior to staging and at any point was an eligible jobholder, then it is important that this checkbox is selected. In this scenario, if the employee opts out of the qualifying pension, then they should be immediately enrolled into an Auto Enrolment scheme.

Date Employee Ceased AE Contributions
If the employee decided to end payments into their pension scheme, then provide the date when contributions stopped.

Salary Exchange

These details will help with setting up salary sacrifice auto enrolment pensions

Firstly, go into ‘Company’ > ‘Pensions’.
Click the ‘Add New’ button.
Enter a ‘Fund Name’ and ‘Scheme Reference’.
Select a ‘Beneficiary’ from the drop down list.
(It is critical that, if you are creating employee letters or pension files from the software that a beneficiary is selected. If no beneficiary exists click ‘Add New‘ to create one).
Enter the ‘Employee’ and ‘Employer’ pension contributions.

Within the Auto Enrolment section check Auto Enrolment Scheme.
Under ‘Calculation Operation‘ select the ‘Salary Exchange’ option.
If the employer is passing on a percentage of their NIC savings on to the employee, enter this amount into the ‘Employer reinvests % of NIC savings’ box..
Check any additional ‘Calculation Options‘ that apply and the click the ‘Save‘ button at the bottom right of the window.
Then click ‘Close‘ and proceed on to the next step.
Drop down the ‘Fund Name’ box and select the salary exchange pension.
If you have ‘AE Groups’ or ‘Payment Source’ configured under ‘Company‘ > ‘Company Maintenance‘ > ‘Pensions’ ensure the appropriate selections are made.
The default percentage contributions, set up in ‘Company‘ > ‘Pensions’, will have filtered through to this employee. Amend them if required.
If an ‘AVC’ will be in operation enter the additional contribution.
The employer reinvestment figure will have filtered through from ‘Company Pensions‘. If you need a different percentage for the employee then adjust the figure here.
Click ‘Save Pension‘, then ‘Save‘ and ‘Close‘.