Automatic re-enrolment

Re-enrolment revisits an earlier choice

Automatic re-enrolment requires an employer to look again at certain staff who previously opted out, ceased membership or reduced contributions below the required level. If they meet the current conditions, the employer puts them back into an automatic enrolment scheme.

The usual cycle is broadly every three years. This is not an annual invitation and it is not the same as continually assessing someone who has never become eligible. The Pensions Regulator's detailed guidance also identifies limited circumstances in which immediate re-enrolment applies.

Fix the date, then assess the right group

Choose the cyclical re-enrolment date inside the statutory window and identify staff who need to be checked on that date. Assess them against the live age, earnings and working-in-the-UK criteria. Recent decisions to leave can affect whether re-enrolment is compulsory, so use the current rules rather than putting every former member through the same action.

Postponement is not available for cyclical re-enrolment. Where the duty applies, restore active membership from the re-enrolment date, restart the correct contributions and give the required information.

Keep the re-enrolment date beside the original opt-out or cessation records. The future assessment then starts with a known population instead of a search through old payroll notes.

Complete the cycle even when nobody returns

Someone who is re-enrolled can make a fresh choice to opt out through the statutory process. Keep the new enrolment, notice, contribution and any later opt-out records as a separate cycle.

The employer must also complete re-declaration. That requirement remains even when the assessment finds nobody to put back into the scheme. The regulator's re-enrolment overview provides the current dates and steps for both parts of the cycle.