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The automatic enrolment regime requires employers to enrol certain workers in a pension scheme which meets at least minimum standards (known as a ‘qualifying scheme’). This is commonly known as the ‘employer duty’.

When the auto-enrolment policy was being rolled out (from July 2012 onwards), this employer duty was ‘staged’, with the largest employers then in existence being subject to the duty first. There were other aspects of this gradual approach to the duty applying, but none are relevant now. The current position is that for employers now being newly established this employer duty applies as soon as the employer employs a worker. The employer must then assess whether that worker is an eligible jobholder and where this is the case, enrol them in a qualifying scheme. This process must be carried out for all workers.

However, the employer can apply a waiting period of up to three months after the eligible jobholder’s ‘starting day’ (ie the first day on which the employee meets