When an employee is enrolled in Penfold, we need certain information to create an account for them and to send them information about their new pension pot.
What information do we need?
We need some basic information about the person to create an account.
Required details we need to enrol someone are shown in the table below:
Required Enrolment Field | Acceptable Column Names | Required Value | Example Value |
EmployerId, ER ID, Scheme Number, SchemeNumber, AccountNumber, Account Number, SchemeID, Scheme ID, Scheme Code, SchemeCode, ERCode, ER Code | PENXXXXXXXX (where ‘X’ is a digit) | PEN11668244 | |
NationalInsuranceNumber, NINO, NI Number, NINumber, National Insurance, NationalInsurance, National Insurance, Nationalinsurance, NI NO, NI | Two prefix letters, six digits and one final letter. We accept spaces | QQ123456C | |
Employment Start Date | EmploymentStartDate, EmploymentStart, Employment Start | DD/MM/YYYY, DD-MM-YYYY, DD.MM.YYYY | 17/11/2023 |
Forename | Forename1, First Name, FirstName | Can only contains letters, spaces and hyphens. Must start with a letter, be under 36 characters and can’t contain digits. | Jane, John |
Surname | Surname, Last Name, LastName, FamilyName, Family Name | Can only contain letters, spaces and hyphens. Must start with a letter, be under 36 characters and can’t contain digits. | Smith |
Birth Date | BirthDate, Date of Birth, D-O-B, DOB | DD/MM/YYYY, DD-MM-YYYY, DD.MM.YYYY | 24/12/1985 |
Email Address | EmailAddress, Email, E-mail, E-mail address | Valid email address containing "@" and "." | |
Address | Address1 , Address Line 1, AddressLine1, PropertyNumber, Add1 | Must be no more that 80 characters | 51 Penfold Street, London |
Postcode | Postcode, PostalCode, Postal Code, Address5, Add5 | Must be no more that 11 characters | SE1 4PG |
Using PAPDIS csv files from your payroll software ensures the best new employee enrolment. You may be able to download the PAPDIS file directly from your payroll software. Most payroll software allow PAPDIS export.
PAPDIS enables you to upload enrolment and contribution information at the same time, having all the required fields in the file. To create new accounts with the PAPDIS file, please make sure that these fields are filled in correctly, and upload the file on the contributions side.
In case you’re not able to download the PAPDIS file, we provide a simple csv template for uploading this information into the Penfold Platform. (You can find the templates at the end of this article)
💡 Please make sure to upload the file in csv format. More on accepted formats here
Who should be enrolled in Penfold?
Employees can be enrolled in various ways, including:
Automatic Enrolment - this is when someone meets the earnings and age criteria to become an “Eligible Jobholder” and the employer has a duty to put them into the pension scheme. The employer can choose to postpone auto enrolment for up to 3 months if they wish.
Opting In - some jobholders have the right to Opt In to a scheme before they become Eligible or during a postponement period.
Asking to join - some workers don’t earn enough to be classed as a jobholder, so they can’t be auto enrolled and they don’t have Opt In rights. However, they can still ask to join the scheme if they wish, although the employer is not obliged to pay contributions for them.
Cyclical re-enrolment - every 3 years, employers have to re-enrol any jobholder who has Opted Out of the pension scheme.
Immediate re-enrolment - if an employer is moving to Penfold from another provider, any jobholders who were in the old scheme at the point it closed need to be immediately re-enrolled into the Penfold scheme.
Contractual / voluntary enrolment - an employer may arrange to put an employee into the pension scheme outside of automatic enrolment rules. This would require the employee’s consent, such as in their contract of employment or a separate consent form.
Some of these enrolment types come with a mandatory right to Opt Out of being enrolled in the scheme. Penfold also gives new members cancellation rights, which are broadly the same as Opt Out rights.
When should they be enrolled?
Usually, your payroll process will include an assessment of who needs to be enrolled and when, and you should only tell us about an employee at the point they are being enrolled.
Penfold does not need to know about employees who are not yet enrolled, whether that be because they are not eligible, have not Opted In / asked to join, or are in a postponement period.
If we don’t have enrolment information, we can’t create an employee's account and therefore we can’t process contribution information for them - this can lead to delays in processing contributions and potential late payments, so it’s good practice to ensure you are always uploading new enrolments in advance of (or, in the case of a PAPDIS upload, at the same time as) the first contributions due for the new enrollees.
💡 An employer is obliged to provide their pension provider with this information within 6 weeks from the date of the employee’s auto-enrolment date. A failure to do so may be a breach of your auto-enrolment obligations, and we may have to report this to The Pension’s Regulator.
What happens next?
Welcome email
When you enrol an employee into Penfold, we will send them a welcome email which includes statutory information about the scheme and their Opt Out rights. This is usually sent instantly, but it can take up to 2 business days if there are any issues with creating the new enrollee’s account.
Opt Out window
If they do want to Opt Out, the welcome email includes a link which facilitates this for them.
The Penfold Platform tells you whether any employees have Opted Out on the Employees tab, and we send notifications to ensure you know about any Opt Outs.
They have 1 month from the date they receive the welcome email in which to Opt Out. Any contributions paid before an employee Opts Out will be refunded.
Contributions expectations
Once someone is enrolled, Penfold will expect contributions for them in every subsequent pay period.
We may send reminders or late payment notices if contributions are not submitted for an individual who has been enrolled.
We’ll stop expecting contributions if the employee Opts Out or otherwise leaves the scheme (e.g. leaves employment, stops contributions, takes benefits or passes away).