What is Automatic enrolment? 

Automatic enrolment is a Government initiative to help more people save for later life through a pension scheme at work. It requires employers to enrol their eligible workers into a pension scheme automatically and to pay towards their pensions.

For the purpose of automatic enrolment, workers are put into three different categories depending on how much they earn and their age. The categories are eligible jobholders, non-eligible jobholders and entitled workers. Your employer will tell you which category you belong to and what this means for you. Automatic enrolment will mainly affect eligible jobholders.

An eligible jobholder:

  • is age 22 or over
  • is under State Pension age
  • has earnings of over £10,000 a year

If you are a new employee who is eligible to join the LGPS, you will generally join the Scheme when you start your job. 

What if I don’t want to join the pension scheme?

You can opt out of the LGPS at any time. Find out about Opting out of the LGPS.  

If you opt out, your employer will be required to re-enrol you into the LGPS approximately every three years on a set re-enrolment date. They will only do this if you are still an eligible jobholder.

Your employer may choose not to automatically enrol you if:

  • you had opted out of the LGPS less than 12 months before the date you would have been automatically enrolled in the job
  • you or your employer gives notice to end your employment before or shortly after the automatic enrolment date
  • your employer has reasonable grounds to believe that, on what would have been the date they automatically enrolled you, you hold Primary Protection, Enhanced Protection, Fixed Protection, Fixed Protection 2014, Individual Protection 2014, Fixed Protection 2016 or Individual Protection 2016. Visit our Tax and your pension section for more information about the lifetime allowance.