Can I delay auto enrolling my workers?

You can use postponement to delay the date you need to automatically enrol your workers and start making contributions. If you do, you must let all your workers know within six weeks from the date they join your business, and tell them when they’ll be enrolled. You can use our templates to do this. You don’t need to tell us, just delay entering details for the workers until the postponement period ends.

You might want to use postponement for a few reasons:

• to synchronise enrolment dates with the start of a pay period. 
• if you have seasonal or short-term workers who’ll be with you for less than three months

The postponement period can vary in length for different workers. The final day of any postponement can be no later than:

• three months after the date your employer duties start, or
• three months after an eligible worker’s first day of employment, or
• three months after a worker first becomes eligible for automatic enrolment

If any worker asks to join within the postponement period, you’ll need to assess them and determine if they’re eligible for auto enrolment. If they’re eligible, you’ll need to enrol them and pay the legal minimum employer and worker contributions. If they’re an entitled worker, you don’t have to pay employer contribution, you can if you choose to and you’ll need to ensure your account is setup to pay the worker contributions.