Auto Enrolment Pension: An Employer's Guide to Your Duties in 2026/27

Auto enrolment means every UK employer must put eligible staff into a workplace pension and pay into it. Eligible staff are workers aged 22 to State Pension age earning over £10,000 a year. The 2026/27 minimum is 8% of qualifying earnings (£6,240 to £50,270), with at least 3% from the employer. You must then declare compliance to The Pensions Regulator.

The duties apply from your first hire, whether you’re a UK start-up or an overseas company taking on its first UK employee. This guide follows The Pensions Regulator’s (TPR) guidance for employers who have to provide a pension.

When do auto enrolment duties start?

Your duties start on the day your first member of staff starts work. TPR calls this your duties start date. From that date, the clock runs on four steps:

1. Choose a pension scheme that can be used for automatic enrolment. Set this up early, as it can take time.
2. Work out who to enrol on your duties start date.
3. Write to each member of staff within six weeks of your duties start date to explain how automatic enrolment applies to them.
4. Declare your compliance to TPR within five months of your duties start date.

Missing the declaration deadline can lead to a fine, so put it in the diary the day you hire.

How do you assess which workers to enrol?

You assess everyone aged 16 to 74 who works or ordinarily works in the UK. The assessment uses their age and their earnings in each pay reference period, which usually matches how often you pay them (a week or a month). TPR’s detailed guidance on assessing the workforce sorts workers into three groups.

Category	Age	Earnings (2026/27)	Your duty
Eligible jobholder	22 to State Pension age	Over £10,000 a year (£833 a month, £192 a week)	Enrol automatically and pay employer contributions
Non-eligible jobholder	16 to 74	Over £6,240 a year but not over the trigger; or over the trigger if aged 16 to 21 or State Pension age to 74	Enrol if they ask to opt in, and pay employer contributions
Entitled worker	16 to 74	£6,240 a year or less (£520 a month, £120 a week)	Arrange pension membership if they ask; employer contributions not required

Eligible jobholders

These are the people you must put into a pension without being asked. Enrol them from their automatic enrolment date and send the required information.

Non-eligible jobholders

If a non-eligible jobholder asks to opt in, you must put them into your automatic enrolment scheme. TPR’s guidance on opting in and joining confirms this means you must pay an employer contribution for them too.

Entitled workers

Entitled workers can ask to join a pension scheme. You must arrange it, but TPR says you don’t have to make employer contributions, and the scheme doesn’t have to be your automatic enrolment scheme. It must still be a UK tax-registered scheme.

Keep reassessing

Ages and pay change. TPR expects you to check ages and earnings every time you pay staff. Someone on low hours who picks up overtime, or who turns 22, can become an eligible jobholder in a single pay period. Good payroll software handles this automatically, but someone has to check the results.

What are the earnings trigger and qualifying earnings band for 2026/27?

TPR’s earnings thresholds page gives the 2026/27 figures, which are unchanged from 2025/26:

	Annual	Monthly	Weekly
Earnings trigger	£10,000	£833	£192
Lower level of qualifying earnings	£6,240	£520	£120
Upper level of qualifying earnings	£50,270	£4,189	£967

The earnings trigger decides whether someone must be automatically enrolled. The qualifying earnings band decides how much the minimum contributions are worked out on. Qualifying earnings include salary, wages, commission, bonuses, overtime, and statutory sick, maternity, paternity and adoption pay.

How much must employers contribute?

The legal minimum is 8% of qualifying earnings, of which at least 3% must come from you. The other 5% comes from the staff member. You can choose to pay more than 3%, and many employers do.

Worked example: £30,000 salary, monthly pay

Monthly pay is £2,500. Qualifying earnings for the month are £2,500 − £520 = £1,980.

Contribution	Monthly	Annual
Employer (3%)	£59.40	£712.80
Employee (5%)	£99.00	£1,188.00
Total (8%)	£158.40	£1,900.80

Check the annual figure: £30,000 − £6,240 = £23,760 of qualifying earnings, and 3% of that is £712.80.

The band is capped at £50,270. For someone earning £60,000, minimum contributions are worked out on £50,270 − £6,240 = £44,030 a year, so the employer minimum is £1,320.90.

Pension is a real cost on top of salary and employer National Insurance, so include it when you budget for a role. Our employer cost calculator shows the full picture.

When do contributions have to be paid?

Agree payment dates with your scheme provider. By law, contributions deducted from pay must reach the scheme by the 22nd of the following month (the 19th if you pay by cheque). Late payment can lead to a TPR fine.

Can you postpone auto enrolment?

Yes. You can use postponement to delay assessing a worker for up to three months. This suits seasonal or short-term staff. It can also line up a new starter’s enrolment with your pay cycle.

The rules:

• Write to each affected person individually within six weeks of the postponement starting, explaining what you’re doing.
• If they ask to join during the postponement, you must enrol them.
• At the end of the postponement, assess them. If they’re an eligible jobholder, enrol them.

Postponement delays your duties. It doesn’t remove them. TPR covers it in its guidance on seasonal or temporary staff.

How do opt-outs work?

Once enrolled, a staff member can opt out within one month. If they do, you must stop the deductions and arrange a full refund of what they paid. The opt-out must be their own decision. TPR’s guidance on safeguarding individuals says you must not offer an inducement to opt out, such as a one-off payment or a promotion. You also must not suggest to a job applicant, in an advert, an interview or an offer, that getting the job depends on opting out.

What is re-enrolment and why does it happen every three years?

Every three years you must put certain staff who have left your scheme back into it, if they still meet the criteria. You then complete a re-declaration of compliance. TPR writes to you before your re-enrolment date, but don’t rely on the letter. Keep the date in your own compliance calendar.

What goes in the declaration of compliance?

The declaration tells TPR you’ve met your duties. You’ll need your PAYE scheme reference, the letter code from TPR’s automatic enrolment letter, your pension scheme’s employer reference and registry number, and staff numbers on your duties start date: the total employed, how many you had to enrol and how many were already in a scheme. If you used postponement, you can’t declare until the postponement period has ended. File it within five months of your duties start date and again after each re-enrolment.

Keep records of how you met your duties. These include staff names and addresses, the dates contributions were paid, join and opt-out requests, and your scheme reference. TPR asks you to keep most records for six years, and opt-out requests for four years.

Auto enrolment, handled inside payroll

Auto enrolment works best when it runs inside payroll. Staff are assessed on every pay run, contributions are taken correctly and the scheme is paid on time. Our payroll services include assessment, pension contributions and scheme submissions as standard. If you’re hiring in the UK without a local company, our employer of record service takes on these duties as the legal employer.