Commencing on October 1st 2012, the government has issued a revised staging timetable for when employees have to enrol their staff into a work place pension scheme.

Depending on PAYE sceheme size and reference, employers will be given a date by the Pensions Regulator for when they have to auto-enrol eligable employees and make maditory employer contributions This will be paid into a workplace pensions scheme or into the National Employment Savings Trust (NEST)

Previously publishing a staging timetable, the government have adjusted this timetable and published a revised automatic enrolment staging timetable.This follows its announcement in November 2011 that it would revise the original timetable so that small businesses (i.e. those with fewer than 50 employees) would be given more time to prepare and would therefore only begin automatic enrolment from May 2015, instead of the previously intended timing of April 2014. Under the revised timetable, there is no change to the staging dates of large employers with 250 or more employees. 

Under the staging timetable, all existing employers will have enrolled their staff by April 2017, followed by all new employers by February 2018. 

The level of pension contribution will be phased in over time to help employers and workers adjust. Full contributions will have to be paid from 1 October 2018.