Depending on your approach to auto-enrolment, and whether you’re using SmartEnrol or another payroll system, some of the processes may not be available. Please speak to your scheme adviser or implementation manager for more information.
As an employer you’re responsible for:
Processing new members and those who leave
Maintaining up-to-date scheme membership to reflect members who have left the company or no longer contribute to this scheme, for example those on maternity or paternity leave.
Creating and submitting contribution schedules
Setting up contribution schedules for your scheme and uploading your payroll data files. Remember if you have any non-contributing members, you'll need to deal with them before you upload your contribution schedules. We'll let you know if you have any and who they are.
Updating member details and contribution rates
Keep member details up-to-date for example name, address and contact details, as well as their contribution rates.
Before you upload any member data, it’s best practice to conduct a data cleanse exercise on your data to make sure it’s accurate, up-to-date and matches the template fields. This will help you reduce errors during any bulk processes.
Let’s take a closer look at some of the core processes you may have access to.
Manage members
Here you can choose to view and update your members on an individual basis or if you want to make changes to more than one member at a time you can choose Bulk member update.
If you choose Bulk member update, you’ll select a template, or create one if you don’t have one already, and upload your file. We’ll process this and let you know when it’s complete or if you need to take any further action.
You can get the latest updates on Track progress.
Add new members
Here you can choose to add more than one new member to the scheme. Add new members allows you to select a template you’ve already created, or create one if you don’t have one, and upload your file.
We’ll process this and let you know when it’s complete or if you need to take any further action. You can get the latest updates on Track progress.
Manage contributions
When you're ready to upload a new contribution file, and you've updated any non-contributing members, use Manage contributions. This allows you to set up your contribution schedule, check the contributions to be applied are correct and, if you have the necessary permission, approve the contribution schedule. We’ll update you at each stage of the process, and you can check for the latest update on Track progress.
Watch our quick video on the Manage contributions process.
Once you’ve started the process and progressed past the What you need to know page, you’ll set up your contribution schedule. You’ll pick a payroll site and whether it’s for a single or regular contribution.
We’ll then validate the file to make sure the data provided is accurate and can be processed. If we find any errors in the file, we’ll let you know what and where they are so you can make the changes in your file. You can then upload it again.
Once you’ve entered all the necessary information, we’ll ask you to review and confirm the contribution details are correct. You’ll need approve contribution schedules permission to do this. You can check the progress of the contributions on Track progress.
When you confirm the contribution details, the collection date will automatically pre-populate to the earliest date, but you can change this to a later date if you want to.
We must receive contributions 10 workings date prior to the 22nd of the following month.
If you don’t have permission to approve the contribution schedule ask a colleague with that permission to review and confirm the details to approve the contribution schedule.
Depending on the size of the file that’s been uploaded it might take some time to display the status.
While this is being processed, you can continue to carry out other tasks on your account. We’ll notify you by email when the process is complete, or you can check Track progress.
If you have any non-contributing members, you'll need to deal with them before you upload your contribution schedules. We'll let you know if you have any and who they are.
As well as seeing the notification on your dashboard, you can see if you have any on Summary of contributions. Select the Non-contributing members tab for more details.
For any members who aren’t contributing you’ll need to select the reason why they’re not contributing in that payroll period. For auto-enrolment schemes this will include members who aren’t contributing while in their opt-out period.
Some of these reasons will require a start and end date. The start date is mandatory and the end date is optional.
If you’re unsure of the end date, add the date you expect it to end. The member can contribute sooner or later if required.
If you’re updating a status to Left service, please don’t add an end date.
What is relief at source?
Where you’re deducting contributions from the member's pay and passing it to us on their behalf, you should operate pay as you earn (PAYE) on the full amount of their pay, then deduct the contribution. You should then send this net contribution to us. We’ll claim back the basic rate of tax relief from HMRC and add it to the member’s product.
Are member and salary sacrifice contributions the same?
Where a member has chosen to use salary sacrifice, they’ll give up some of their gross salary in exchange for a salary sacrifice contribution pay by you as the employer. You should pay the gross contributions. We’ll not claim any additional tax relief from HMRC.
It’s important to record and send any contribution splits as salary sacrifice.
If you need to get an update on any of the processes you’ve uploaded, you can select Track progress from your dashboard. You’ll get confirmation of the process changes made, for example where you add new members, providing dates, time, and the status.
You can select any of the records to get more information and see if you need to take any action.
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Completed | The process is complete and updated. |
| Errors found | We’ve found some errors on your file and before the process can continue you need to correct them on your file. |
| In progress | We’re validating the file and the data provided. We'll update when all phases of validation are complete. |
| Confirm contributions | A user with permissions to approve a contribution schedule needs to confirm the contribution details provided are correct. |
| Awaiting contributions | The contribution schedule has been approved and we’re going to collect the contributions. |
| Contributions applied | Contributions have been collected and applied to the member’s product. |
| Process failed | The process has been unsuccessful, and we haven’t been able to complete it. You’ll need to try again or get in touch if you continue to have problems. |
Other options
When the status of members change you can do this individually or as a bulk file. Using Member status change allows you to upload a file to change the employment status for more than one member at a time.
| The status reasons are: | |
|---|---|
| Below statutory minimum earnings | Opt-out period |
| Contribution break | Paternity leave |
| Deceased | Payroll transfer |
| Left service | Permanent retirement |
| Long-term sick | Scheme opt out |
| Maternity leave |
Here’s where you’ll find a summary of your scheme including the scheme and adviser contact information, the scheme category details, default investment details and the contribution history.
Scheme summary
This first tab is a summary of the scheme which includes key information including the scheme start date, default retirement age and products available. It also gives you the scheme adviser name and address.
If you need to update the employer details, email employersupport@aegon.co.uk. Please don't email any personal, financial or banking information as it's not a secure method of communication. If you have a dedicated secure email service with Aegon, for example Unipass Mailock, please use this service.
Category details
At a glance the Category details show the different member categories, a breakdown of the contributions amounts and percentages and default investment details. If there’s more than one category, you can navigate to them simply by selecting Load more.
Contribution history
Contribution history gives you a snapshot of recent contributions uploaded for the scheme and the status of each. You can get more details on Track progress or select any of the payroll periods and you'll see a quick look at the split of contributions paid.
SmartEnrol supports the enrolment and re-enrolment of eligible employees into your scheme, relieving your teams of this time-consuming regulatory requirement.
SmartEnrol is an intelligent online service that automates your auto-enrolment tasks. It will work out which of your employees are affected by the legislation and when you need to act. This means you stay in control of all the key decisions and we deliver the administration in a simple and straightforward way.
SmartEnrol will:
- Categorise your employees in line with the new legislation – eligible, non-eligible and entitled.
- Manage your mandatory communication requirements.
- Manage the opt out/opt in/joining process.
- Verify the payments for each worker based on their category.
- Provide ongoing monitoring of all employees for any changes to their auto-enrolment status.
- Support your cyclical automatic re-enrolment duties.
Report Zone is our online reporting and management information service to help you manage your scheme effectively. You can view and export reports on all our products, including:
- Financial information - for example the value of the scheme and number and value of transfers in a single contribution.
- Membership details – number of members (active, deferred and leavers), number of members due to retire.
- How contributions are split – total contributions, employer and employee contributions and industry benchmarks.
- Investment information – value of investments, percentage splits, number of active and deferred members invested in a particular fund.
Comprehensive management information is vital for good pension scheme management. As part of our commitment to helping employers, we've created a time-saving online reporting solution called Member Insights.
It will give you confidence that you've helped your members prepare for retirement and encouraged them to value the benefits on offer.
What are the benefits of using Member Insights?
- It provides an easy-to-understand governance report – without having to interrogate the data.
- Helps you understand the retirement savings position of your members by monitoring whether they're actively involved with their pensions. And whether they need support or help in making appropriate contributions and investment decisions.
- Highlights key areas that you may want to address such as 'reviewing contributions' and 'pension health check', so you can help improve employees' retirement outcomes, using a simple alert system.
- Encourages you to take corrective action by enabling you to engage and educate selected members through the issuing of auto-generated and targeted emails.
- Provides you with statistics to measure how your campaigns have performed.