Company pension laws- Auto Enrolment/NEST

NOTE: This article is subject to changes – especially if NEST is pulled or ISAs included following nest’s review.  Once the dust has cleared on the budget cuts and how the DWP is affected, you may want to do a very practical check list of things to do to prepare for auto-enrolment. How employers will be affected [...]

It is envisaged that a total of 8% of a workers salary will end up in a NEST account with the employee paying 4%, the employer 3% with the last 1% coming from government tax relief. A major concern remains over the ability of small firms to pay the extra costs as the economic crisis [...]

Steve Webb, Coalition pensions minister, says workers who manage to put a provision on top of a state pension are achieving something special When Steve Webb was in opposition, he enjoyed a nice office overlooking the River Thames. Once the Liberal Democrat MP made it into power as the Minister of State for Pensions, he [...]

Sometimes a small employer wants to offer pension provision for their staff, but their size does not warrant a large defined contribution scheme. In these cases a group personal pension (GPP) is often used. A group personal pension is usually set up by an employer. It is simply a collection of individual personal pension plans [...]

The Government is introducing number of key changes to the pension landscape from 2012. These include the introduction of a new trust-based pension scheme – the National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) and pension scheme auto-enrolment for employees. The NEST pension scheme is meant to be a new low cost pension scheme designed to meet the [...]

Pension auto-enrolment: What it means for you As part of its attempts to deal with the looming pension crisis in the UK, and the failure of people to make provision for their retirement, the Governments has introduced legislation that requires all employers to auto-enrol their staff in a qualifying workplace pension scheme. The requirement is [...]

If you are between 22 and retirement age and earn more than £5,035 you must either be enrolled in the NEST or an eligible company scheme. However, you can opt out if you want.

If you already have a qualifying scheme, such as a defined contribution scheme, a stakeholder pension or even a Group Personal Pension you can enrol all of your eligible staff in your company scheme providing minimum contributions levels are met. A defined benefit scheme , such as a final salary scheme also qualifies for auto-enrolment [...]

The National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) is a new low-cost pension scheme backed by the Government, which is meant to be introduced in 2012. The NEST used to be known as the Personal Account. NEST is part of the Government’s plans to improved occupational pensions. The other main component of the reforms is auto-enrolment, which [...]

A Group Personal Pension is a collection of personal pension plans which an employer sets up for hi or her staff. Each member has their own personal pension plan which they make contributions to. The employee may get a discount on the set up and annual management charges for their personal pension, as the pension [...]