Changes to Employer Staging Dates

Employer’s staging dates have been extended to February 2018. 

The staging dates from March 2014 to May 2015 will only apply to employers with 50 to 249 people in their PAYE scheme as at 1 April 2012.

Where an employer has less than 50 employees in his PAYE scheme as at 1 April 2012 the revised staging dates are set out below:

40 to 49 employees – 1 August 2015

30 to 39 employees – 1 October 2015

Less than 30 (First PAYE income paid before 1 April 2012) Between 1 June 2015 and 1 April 2017 

Where an employer sets up a new PAYE scheme between 1 April 2012 and 30 September 2017 the employer will be assigned a staging date between 1 March 2017 and 1 February 2018.

Where an employer sets up a new PAYE scheme on or after 1 October 2017 the employer will have an immediate staging date where the employer is paying PAYE income in respect of any worker.

Where an employer did not have a PAYE scheme, their staging date will be 1 April 2017, while new employers set up after 1 April 2017 without a PAYE scheme, will have an immediate staging date where they pay qualifying earnings to a worker.

Transitional phasing in period for money purchase contributions 

The regulations also now confirm the one year delay in the phasing in of the minimum employer and minimum aggregate contributions for automatic enrolment, where the qualifying scheme is a money purchase scheme. The revised phasing in periods will be as follows:

Minimum Employer Contribution

First transitional period (years 1 – 5 from 1/10/12) 1%

Second transitional period (year 6 from 1/10/2017) 2%

Fully in force (year 7 onwards from 1/10/2018) 3%

Minimum Total Contribution

First transitional period (years 1 – 5 from 1/10/12) 2%

Second transitional period (year 6 from 1/10/2017) 5%

Fully in force (year 7 onwards from 1/10/2018) 8%

The transitional period for defined benefit and hybrid schemes will also be extended to finish on 30 September 2017.