Every UK employer is required to offer and contribute to a workplace pension scheme for their employees, and as your umbrella company is your employer, they must comply with these rules. In this article, we’ll look at what will happen and when, so you know what to expect.

 Postponement

When you start employment with a new company, there will often be a period of time before you’re enrolled on their pension scheme, so you have the chance to “settle in” with your new employer before being enrolled.

If you’re employed by Orange Genie and you meet the qualifying conditions, you’ll be automatically enrolled onto our pension scheme once you’ve been employed by us for 12 weeks.

If you wish to enrol straight away instead of waiting for the postponement period to end, you can arrange this by writing to us with your request.

Auto-enrolment

You’ll qualify for auto-enrolment if you:

• Are aged between 22 and state pension age

• Earn over £10,000 per year

• Work mostly in the UK

• Are not already enrolled in a qualifying workplace pension scheme

It’s important to note that employers are required to enrol all employees who meet these criteria. They are not allowed to opt you out during the postponement period – they have to enrol you onto their pension scheme.

Once you’ve been enrolled

You and your employer will start making payments to the workplace pension scheme, and you will be contacted by the pension provider. New members of our pension scheme will receive their pack by post within six weeks of being enrolled.

The pack will contain everything you need to know about your pension scheme, including how to contact the pension provider if you have questions.

Salary Sacrifice

Some employers will also give you the option to contribute to a pension via salary sacrifice, which is the most tax-efficient way to do it. Whether this option is available will depend your employer’s internal policies and processes.

Orange Genie employees have the option to contribute to their choice of pension scheme via salary sacrifice, either as well as or instead of enrolment in our workplace pension.

If you want to opt out

Again, it must be stressed that your employer is not allowed to suggest that you opt out of their pension scheme, but you do have the right to do so if you really want to.

Orange Genie employees can opt out of our workplace pension scheme by contacting the pension provider directly once they’ve received their pack in the post.

It’s important to save for retirement, so we’d strongly advise you to at least look at the pension scheme on offer and make a deliberate decision about whether you want to join it. If you do decide to opt out, we also strongly advise you to make your own pension provision, and to seek expert advice if you need it.

If you have questions or if we can help in any way, please call our expert team on 01296 468483 or email info@orangegenie.com.