The Occupational and Personal Pension Schemes (Automatic Enrolment) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the Occupational and Personal Pension Schemes (Automatic Enrolment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2010 (“the 2010 Regulations”) by reducing the information requirements on employers, introducing certain circumstances where the employer duty is turned into a discretion and prescribing alternative quality requirements for defined benefits schemes.

These Regulations introduce further exceptions to the employer duties and modify relevant sections of the Pensions (No. 2) Act (Northern Ireland) 2008 (“the Act”) so as to provide that—

• where notice of termination of employment has been given, the employer duty to automatically enrol or re-enrol is turned into a discretion and the entitlement of a jobholder or worker to opt in to or join a scheme does not apply. Where it is agreed between the jobholder or worker and employer that notice is withdrawn, the duties are imposed from the date of that agreement;

• the employer duty to automatically enrol or re-enrol a worker or jobholder is turned into a discretion where a worker or jobholder has decided, in the last 12 months, to leave a qualifying scheme; where a jobholder benefits from certain tax protection, and where a worker has received a winding-up lump sum in the last 12 months;

• where the employer exercises the power to make arrangements for the jobholder or worker to join a relevant scheme, the employer is treated as if they were discharging a duty.

These Regulations also—

• amend the period of time in which an employer must give relevant information about the jobholder to the trustees or managers of the occupational pension scheme or personal pension scheme from 1 month to 6 weeks;

• amend the requirements imposed on employers with regard to the provision of information to employees, with the aim of reducing the burden to give several different pieces of information to different kinds of workers at different times;

• introduce alternative quality requirements for UK defined benefits schemes under section 23A(1)(a) and (b) of the Act by inserting regulations 32L and 32M into the 2010 Regulations. The requirements under section 23A(1)(a) are that the scheme meets the quality requirement under section 20 of the Act and also meets the prescribed conditions set out in regulation 32L. The requirement under section 23A(1)(b) is that the cost of accrual of benefits for or in respect of an active member of the scheme must be at least a specified percentage of the member’s qualifying earnings or earnings as defined in regulation 32M. Regulation 32M provides definitions for terms used in that requirement;

• make similar changes in respect of non-UK schemes to reflect the new requirements;

• make consequential amendments and revocations.

The Pensions (2015 Act) (Commencement No. 1) Order (Northern Ireland) 2015 (S.R. 2015 No. 307 (C. 25)) provides for the coming into operation of sections 37 and 38 of the Pensions Act (Northern Ireland) 2015, which amend section 10 of, and insert sections 69A and 23A into, the Act, some of the enabling provisions under which these Regulations are made, on 16th July 2015.