Auto-enrolment pensions update
07 Feb 2013
On 1 March 2013, the University must begin to assess its employees for auto-enrolment pensions.
Following the March payroll, HR will write to all members of staff to explain what action, if any, they have taken to auto-enrol you.
As we have explained before, this change to pensions will not affect the majority of our staff as they are already enrolled in pension schemes.
If you are not an existing member of USS, UMSS, GMPF or NHSPS but your contract gives you entitlement to membership of a University pension scheme and you are an Eligible Jobholder*, we will enrol you into USS or UMSS on 1 March.
If you are not entitled to join USS or UMSS (for example, you are already receiving a USS pension or you are employed on a casual basis), we will assess you under the auto-enrolment criteria. If you are an Eligible Jobholder, we will enrol you into NEST, our auto-enrolment pension provider.
If you are not an Eligible Jobholder on 1 March, we will continue to assess you and if you become an Eligible Jobholder at a later date, we will then auto-enrol you.
Information on opting-out of a pension scheme after auto-enrolment will be supplied. Please note that you cannot tell us in advance that you wish to opt out.
In the meantime, if you don’t already have a pension and are eligible to join UMSS or USS, you are free to join the appropriate scheme.
* You are an Eligible Jobholder if you are aged between 22 years and state pension age; and earn over £675 in the month of assessment in the 2012/13 tax year.
You can find more information about auto-enrolment on StaffNet at: