The Department for Work and Pensions has launched a consultation for proposals to improve the automatic enrolment process.
Since the launch of automatic enrolment last October, the department surveyed feedback from employers, pension and payroll providers on how it has worked so far, including details on how it could work better.
Key proposals include:

• Streamlining the process for assessing who is eligible for automatic enrolment – the new regulation aims to allow employers to assess eligibility using information already collected by payroll systems.
• Lifting the requirement for people to be automatically enrolled if they have recently been put in their company pension scheme and have left it.
• Asking wider questions about whether the process can be made easier for some employers, whose approach already meets the aims of automatic enrolment or who offer a defined benefit scheme.

Steve Webb, minister for pensions, said: ‘We promised we’d listen to those employers who were first to automatically enrol their staff into a workplace pension.
‘These proposals are to make sure that parts of the legislation work better and are more user-friendly.
We are also asking for suggestions on how we could recognise the best employers.
‘Employers and our partners in the pensions and payroll industry have made a major contribution in delivering these landmark reforms. We want to build on this as medium-sized employers prepare to automatically enrol their staff into a workplace pension.’
The Department for Work and Pensions will be seeking detailed feedback on its proposals and the consultation will run until 7 May 2013.
Read more about auto-enrolment in Actuaries and Pensions & Insurance news.