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Intermediarie's awareness, understanding and activity in relation to workplace pension reforms

The workplace pension reforms are set out in the Pensions Act 2008 and were introduced in October 2012 with large employers being subject to the duties first. Large employers will be subject to the duties between October 2012 and February 2014, medium employers from April 2014 to April 2015 and small/micro-employers from June 2015. Under the reforms, employers will be required to automatically enroll certain members of their workforce, these are called eligible jobholders (those aged between 22 and State Pension age, working in the UK and earning more than £8,105), into a workplace pension scheme, unless the worker is already in a qualifying scheme.

Eligible jobholders can, however, choose to opt out of pension scheme membership. Other members of the employer’s workforce will be able to choose to join or ‘opt in’ to a pension scheme, and, if they do, the employer will have to arrange membership for them into a workplace pension scheme. The type of pension scheme into which they must be enrolled will depend upon the status of the worker.

Employers may choose to enrol eligible jobholders into their existing pension scheme provided it meets or exceeds the minimum requirements set out in the reforms; set up a new scheme which meets these requirements; or amend their existing pension arrangements to meet or exceed the minimum requirements set out in the reforms.
As with the previous waves, the research comprised a telephone survey of intermediaries operating in the UK, with 750 interviews conducted in total.
The previous waves of research comprised 625 interviews in Spring 2012, 557 in Autumn 2011, 686 in Spring 2011 and 798 interviews in Summer 2009.
With the exception of the trustees, the interviews were conducted with individuals who provide, or plan to provide, advice to external organisations about the automatic enrolment process.This report summarises the results from the survey conducted in Autumn 2012, highlighting differences by intermediary type, and referring to the previous surveys where comparisons are relevant. The report also makes occasional reference to the report on Employers’ awareness, understanding and activity relating to workplace pension reforms.