This Statement of Practice sets out the information an employer is required to provide to their employees regarding their auto enrolment into a secondary pension scheme in order to meet their obligations under the Secondary Pensions (Guernsey and Alderney) Law, 2022.
A guide to using the Notices of Enrolment can be found at the bottom of this page.
A Notice of Immediate Enrolment, or if the employer intends to defer the employee's enrolment, then a Notice of Deferred Enrolment, must be given to the employee upon the later of the relevant operative date for that employer, or if that date has passed, the commencement of that employee's employment.
These Notices should be in the form set out in the documents that appear on the Downloads section to the right hand side of this page, modified as appropriate. For example, an employer may choose to only offer Your Island Pension (YIP), in which case then no comparison information between the employer scheme and YIP is required and instead just information on YIP should be provided.
The information given to employees about the pension schemes to enable them to make a comparison between the employer's pension scheme and YIP should include the following aspects (in line with the requirements set out in section 3 of the Secondary Pensions (Guernsey and Alderney), Law, 2022), noting this is not an exhaustive list:
- The costs and charges of the scheme - for example all member borne charges such as the establishment costs and the Annual Management Charge
- Key parties responsible for the governance of the scheme - for example the trustee and administrator
- Investment options - for example if there are a choice of strategies employees can pick from and the parties responsible for managing the investments
- Retirement benefits - for example the normal retirement age, a summary of the benefits available to members, rights to opt out, etc
Employers should be able to obtain this information from the provider of their chosen pension scheme, noting that the pension provider is required to comply with regulatory guidance (for example The Pension Scheme and Gratuity Scheme Rules and Guidance, 2021) which sets out the standard information that should be provided to scheme members. There will be information available to download about YIP from the YIP website.
It is not appropriate to just include a web address for the relevant pension scheme, the employee should be given key information about each pension scheme in an accessible format to assist them with comparing schemes to enable them to make their decision.
An employer should retain copies of notices given to their employees and any requests to use YIP or opt out in case of an audit by the Revenue Service when they may be asked to demonstrate compliance with the relevant legislation.
Compulsory enrolment into a pension scheme as a condition of employment
If it is a condition of employment that an employee joins the employer's pension scheme, then the employer is not required to give a Notice of Immediate Enrolment or Notice of Deferred Enrolment as their employees will be considered "Active members".
Employers whose selected scheme is not YIP
It is recognised that where an employer's selected scheme is not YIP, the employer will need to establish a relationship with YIP the first time one of their employees chooses to opt into YIP. Even with utilising the deferred enrolment mechanism, this could mean employers miss key dates by when they should have acted.
Provided the employer submits an application to YIP within 7 days of the first time an employee chooses to opt into YIP, and follows up on a timely "best endeavours" basis, the Revenue Service will take this into account when considering whether the employer has met their obligations.
Published: October 2023
A guide to using the Notices of Enrolment
- If you have made your pension scheme compulsory in your contracts of employment you will not need to issue a notice to your employee/s. You will just need to make sure your pension scheme meets the legal requirements and that the contributions being paid are at least the minimum contribution levels required.
- If your pension scheme isn't compulsory in your contracts of employment you will need to issue your employee with a notice. There are 3 different notices that you may need to use, and they are also mentioned throughout our guidance pages on this site. The notices and when to use them are explained below with a section at the end covering the editable sections you will need to tailor to your employee/s.
- The templates are editable documents and can be downloaded from the downloads section of this page.
- Notice of Immediate Enrolment into Pension Scheme
- Initially this notice will need to be given to anyone who:
- is employed by you,
- meets the eligibility criteria,
- isn't an active member of your pension scheme when you reach your operative date,
- will be enrolled into your pension scheme immediately.
- For example, if your employee was asked to join the pension scheme when they were first employed by you and opted out, they need to be given this notice if they meet the eligibility criteria and be enrolled into a pension scheme in line with your operative date.
- Once you have passed your operative date this notice will need to be given to any new employee who meets the eligibility criteria and will be automatically enrolled into the pension scheme.
- The notice needs to be given to your employee at least 7 days before you enrol them and their enrolment to the pension scheme needs to be within 7 days of your operative date, or the employee's start date (or the date they meet the eligibility criteria) (whichever is later). You can give this to them with their onboarding paperwork provided they will receive it at least 7 days before you are going to enrol them into the pension scheme.
- The notice will need to be tailored to each employee; there are editable sections that allow you to add their name and the relevant dates, they also include other sections that you will need to update, and these are explained in more detail below.
- Notice of Deferred Enrolment into Pension Scheme
- Initially this notice will be given to anyone who:
- is employed by you,
- meets the eligibility criteria,
- isn't an active member of your pension scheme when you reach your operative date,
- will be enrolled into your pension scheme within 3 months of your operative date.
- For example, if your employee was asked to join the pension scheme when they were first employed by you and opted out, they need to be given this notice if they meet the eligibility criteria and be enrolled into a pension scheme within 3 months of your operative date.
- Once you have passed your operative date this notice will need to be given to any new employee who meets the eligibility criteria and will be enrolled into the pension scheme within 3 months.
- You will have a date that you need to enrol your employee, this will either be the operative date or their start date (or the date they meet the eligibility criteria) and you will need to give your employee their notice at least 7 days before this date. When you prepare the notice, you will need to ensure that the date of enrolment is within 3 months of the operative date or their start date (or the date they meet the eligibility criteria).
- Notice of Automatic Re-Enrolment into Pension Scheme
- The notice of Automatic Re-Enrolment will need to be given to anyone who has opted out of the pension scheme. This will happen on the third anniversary of their decision to opt out and you will need to keep a track of when this will happen. You are able to defer enrolling them into the scheme so can do this within three months of their opt out date.
- The notice will need to be tailored to each employee; there are editable sections that allow you to add their name and the relevant dates, they also include other sections that you will need to update, and these are explained in more detail below.
- Editable Sections:
- Name of scheme
- You will need to specify the pension scheme you have set up with your provider. If you are using Your Island Pension you should refer to the notice available on their website. If you have allowed your employee to use their own pension arrangement, then you will need to add this into the notice so they can choose this.
- Options to change scheme
- Once you have enrolled your employee into the pension scheme you may want them to remain in this scheme throughout their employment and not have the option to change to an alternative pension. If you have decided that you do want them to be able to request to move schemes, for example you may have different pension schemes available and be happy for your employee to move between the two, you will need to remove the section stating you cannot switch schemes once enrolled.
- If your Employee fails to return the notice you must enrol them into the scheme you have chosen. If you allow them to switch schemes you will need to speak to your pension provider about how this will work if they are enrolled into your scheme because they fail to return the notice but later request to move to a different scheme.
- Contribution rates
- You will need to be clear on the contribution percentages that will be applied, so your employee is clear on what you will be paying and how much will be deducted from their salary. For example, you may decide that you want to pay all the contributions and deduct nothing from their pay. The wording will need to be modified to suit the arrangement that has been set up, but it must always include the contribution percentages that will be used.
- Opting Out
- If your employee doesn't want to be in the pension scheme, they will need to inform you in writing of this and you can allow them to provide this notification in any format you prefer however the notice has been designed for them to make their choice on the form.
