If you’re taking on extra staff over the summer, you must make sure you’re complying with your automatic enrolment pension duties.

The warning comes from The Pensions Regulator (TPR) in an online campaign aimed at employers most likely to hire summer temporary workers.

Even if your additional staff work for you for a few days or weeks, you must assess whether they’re eligible to be enrolled into a pension scheme each time you pay them. If they’re eligible, you must put them into a qualifying scheme and pay contributions. As your temporary workers may have variable hours and pay, your assessment of who to put into a pension scheme may take more time and effort. TPR has guidance that will help you ensure you are meeting your duties correctly.

Postponement

If you’ve staff who will be working for you for less than three months, you can use postponement to delay assessing those employees. This pauses the employer's duty to assess staff until the end of the three-month postponement (This link opens in a new window) period.

Don’t hide from your pension duties!

If you think you may be late in meeting your duties for your summer staff, you should tell TPR immediately (This link opens in a new window), so that they can provide support to help you comply.

The majority of employers are doing the right thing for their staff, but TPR warns that those who fail to meet their duties may risk a fine.

TPR monitors employers of all sizes, across all sectors, to protect workers and ensure workers receive the pensions they are legally due.

Check the steps you need to take to assess and enrol seasonal or temporary staff. (This link opens in a new window) Additional information is available if you are employing staff whose hours and pay will vary (This link opens in a new window).