Pensions for payroll, automatic enrolment and salary sacrifice - 2014

Who is this course aimed at?

Anyone responsible for, or connected with, pensions within their organisation and anyone in the HR, finance or payroll environment that requires an understanding of pension schemes, the statutory requirements surrounding automatic enrolment and the benefits of considering salary sacrifice to reduce the employer costs of automatic enrolment.

This illuminating course explains the legal and payroll related implications of the planning and introduction of automatic enrolment for pensions and salary sacrifice arrangements. It examines, with examples, why an arrangement may or may not be effective or successful.

What will I learn?

This course covers the subject of every aspect of pensions in payroll and will assist you in preparing your organisation for the challenges ahead. The role and duties of employers and the various statutory bodies including IRSPSS, DWP and FSA are explained. The focus is on the implications for employers and employees with particular emphasis on payroll processing and procedures.

Course content

• How tax relief is obtained on different types of pension schemes (pre and post tax)
• NI implications of contracting-out, including minimum payments and age-related rebates
• Significance of “tax approval” and its effect of tax relief
• Earning and remuneration for pensions and the earnings cap
• Review of all certificates needed for contracting out and tax approval
• The significance of the upper accrual point and its effect on the NI calculation
• Pension: domestic and expats
• Salary sacrifice implications - employer’s NI savings
• Examination of effective and ineffective sacrifice arrangements
• Implications for tax and NICs of salary sacrifice
• Legislation and case law
• Employer’s contributions to the pension scheme
• AVC (additional voluntary contributions)
• PC (pension cap in tax year), DC (defined contribution), DB (defined benefit)
• ECON (employers contracting out number), SCON (scheme contracting out number)
• Assessing the workforce for automatic enrolment
• The different categories of ‘worker’
• Employer duties
• Automatic enrolment schemes and qualifying schemes
• Re-enrolment
• Opting-in and ‘joining’
• Opting-out
• Refunds
• Multiple contracts
• Outline of safeguards
• Stopping active membership of a qualifying scheme
• Prohibited recruitment conduct
• Types of records that must be kept
• Ensuring payment of all contributions due and deadlines
• Penalties and reviews of compliance activity
• Protected earnings (court orders)
• Filing of pension details with HMRC forms
• Pension reporting/interfacing

Course aims

Upon completion of this course, delegates should:

• Have a strong understanding of various types of pension schemes and their administration
• Understand what needs to be done and by when, to comply with the new pensions regulations for automatic enrolment
• Be aware of how salary sacrifice schemes work and how they may benefit and employers financial obligations with automatic enrolment

The CIPP offer discounts for registered charities on all 1 and 2 day short courses (excluding Irish and International short courses) and 1 day conferences.