Glossary · UK
What is Auto-Enrolment Postponement?
An employer's option to delay assessing and enrolling an eligible worker into a workplace pension for up to three months from their start date or the date they first become eligible.
Full Definition
Auto-enrolment postponement is an option, not an obligation, that lets an employer delay the date it must assess and automatically enrol an eligible jobholder into a qualifying workplace pension scheme, for up to three months from the worker's first day of employment, or from the date they first meet the eligibility criteria (for example on reaching age 22 or crossing the earnings trigger). Employers commonly use postponement to simplify payroll administration around new starters who may leave during a short probationary period, and to avoid the cost and paperwork of enrolling, then promptly having to process an opt-out or refund for, someone who does not stay in the job. To use postponement, the employer must issue a postponement notice to the worker within six weeks of the date postponement begins, explaining that enrolment has been delayed, the new deferred date the worker will be assessed, and that the worker can still ask to opt in voluntarily during the postponement period if they wish. Critically, postponement does not remove an employer's duty to check eligibility and act at the end of the postponement period, and does not exempt the employer from paying pension contributions from the deferred date if the worker remains employed and eligible at that point, so it only delays, rather than avoids, the underlying auto-enrolment obligation.