Running a pension scheme

Running a pension scheme is a highly regulated area. In addition to your legal obligations, there are general principles of best practice you should adhere to when running your workplace pension scheme.

Workplace pensions checklist

It's advisable to:

• consult a professional adviser on your legal obligations and find out which pension scheme is most suitable for your business
• choose a scheme registered by HM Revenue & Customs that can take full advantage of the new tax allowances
• consult with employee representatives or trade unions about any potential changes to the scheme
• provide scheme members with information about the scheme (such as how the scheme works, contributions payable, annual benefit statement, and funding arrangements) either electronically or in hard copy form - note that members can opt out of electronic information in which case you must provide information in hard copy format
• check periodically that your business' pension scheme is still registered with the Pensions Regulator
• seek guidance on any matters you do not understand
• assist trustees in the performance of their duties
• offer employees access to professional pensions advice - this can be done without incurring a tax charge providing the advice is available to all employees and costs less than £500 per employee per year
• consider managing your pension obligations online (you are already required to file some forms and returns online)
• check if it meets the requirements of an automatic enrolment scheme