WFM UK: Assessing Workers at Staging Date in the Pension Module

Overview

The Staging process is done per Pay Basis and the best time to do this will be agreed with the Pension Project Manager at Fourth. The process has to be run in the Pay Reference Period which the staging date falls in, and may need to be run more than once in this period to ensure all new starters are picked up.

This is a one off process.

This article outlines the process which needs to be run to set up Employee Records for the Pension module. For those Pension Schemes using Postponements, the system will calculate the Postponement end dates and dates when Postponement letters are due.

For all Pensions related articles, please see WFM UK - Pensions: Article Contents Page.


Staging Process

In order for the Staging assessment to be successful, a Staging date needs to be set up within the ‘Company Set Up’ page. 

Once entered, the date for ‘The Pension Regulator Registration’ report will be calculated as four months from the Staging date. The organisation must register with the Pension Regulator within 4 months of Staging, submit the number of employees on the PAYE scheme and how many have been auto-enrolled.
 

• To begin the process, go to the Pension Module 

Fig.1 – Pension Module

• Select Company Setup in the Administration drop-down menu

Fig.2 – Company Setup

• Select the required Company

Fig.3 – Company Selection

• Select Pension Statutory Information/Pension Assessment Dates
• Set the Staging Date

Fig.4 – Staging Date

To run the assessment, on or after the assigned Staging date, go to:
 

• Pension > Pension Process > Assess Worker at Employee Staging Dates  

Fig.5 – Assess Workers at Employee Staging Dates

• Select the required Company > Pay Basis

The Pay Basis assigned to each PAYE Company will be displayed in the ‘Pay Basis Selection’ screen. 
 

• Select the required Pay Basis to begin the assessment

Please Note: The Staging Assessment process can only be run in the correct Pay Reference Period. Before running the Staging process, all scenarios must be in place and the Pension Schemes need to be set up correctly.
 

Fig.6 – Pay Basis Selection

Once complete, if the Assessment was successful, the message in Fig.7 will display.
 

Fig.7 – Assess Process Results

There is some Validation within this screen which will restrict the user from performing the assessment under certain circumstances.

In these situations, ‘Failed’ will be displayed and a reason for failure will appear, as in Fig.8

Errors will be received for the following reasons:
 

• The staging date has already been run
• The staging date is outside of the current period
• The staging date has not been set in ‘Company Details’ page
• A Payroll preview is being run at the same time

Fig.8 – Failed Notice

The Staging process will update all existing Employee records for the Pay Basis and all Pension Schemes attached to the Pay Basis in the ‘Pension Eligibility’ screen.
 

• To access this screen, go to Pension > Employees > Employee List

Fig.9 – Employee List

• Select the required Employee
• Select Pension Eligibility in the Employee Pension Info drop-down

Fig.10 – Pension Eligibility

Once the Staging process has run, the following information will update:
 

• The ’Default Pension Scheme’ name will show under the ‘Default AE Pension Scheme’ field
• The ‘Assess for Pension Process’ field will be set to ‘Yes’ for all employees aged over 16 and under 75 unless they have an existing ‘Qualifying Pension Scheme’
• The ‘Active Member of Pension Scheme’ field will be set to ‘Yes’ for all employees in an existing qualifying Pension Scheme before Staging date.  The original start date of the Pension Scheme will be retained as will the Pension Contribution details
• If a ‘Postponement Period’ is set at Scheme level, the ‘Postponement Period’ flag will be set to ‘Yes’ and the Deferral Date will be populated with the date the re-assessment should be completed
  • If a worker group is detected and has a Postponement Period, this date will populate even if their Default Pension Scheme is not subject to a Postponement period
• The ‘Calculate Jobholder Status While in Postponement’ will be set to ‘Yes’ for all employees in an existing Pension Scheme if using ‘General B Postponement’ document
• If using ‘Tailored Notices’, all employees will have this set to yes. When the first Payroll preview is run after staging, all employees’ statuses will be set
• If no ‘Postponement Period’, the’ Deferral Date’ will be populated with a date equal to the ‘Staging Date’, or employment start date if greater than staging date

Fig.11 – Pension Eligibility Fields

The Staging process will update all existing Employee records in the ‘Jobholder Status’ screen.
 

• Go to Pension > Employees > Employee List > select Employee > Employee Pension Info > select Job Holder Status

Fig.12 – Job Holder Status

If a ‘Worker Group’ is detected, the ‘Belongs to the following Worker Groups’ field will be populated with the name of the Worker Group.
If a ‘Worker Group’ is detected, the ‘Date Worker Changed Group’ field will populate with the Staging date.
 

Fig.13 – Job Holder Status Fields

The Staging process will also update all existing Employee records in the ‘Employee Information Dates’ screen.
 

• Go to Pension > Employees > Employee List > select Employee > Employee Pension Info > select Employee Information Dates

Fig.14 – Employee Information Dates

If the employee is subject to a ‘Postponement Period’, the ‘Postponement Period Notice Due Date’ field will automatically populate.

The fields following this one will not automatically be updated during a Staging assessment.
 

Fig.15 – Employee Information Dates Fields

If the Employee is an ‘Active’ member of an existing qualifying scheme, the ‘Active Member Info Due to Eligible and Non-Eligible Jobholders’ date will auto populate with a date two months after the Staging date.
 

Fig.16 – Active Member Info

All other fields will be populated during the Second Stage Calculation process.