Pensions (No. 2) Act (Northern Ireland) 2008

Timing of automatic re-enrolment

6.—(1) Regulations under section 5(8) must either—

(a) secure that for any jobholder there is no automatic re-enrolment date less than three years after the jobholder’s automatic enrolment date, and that there is not more than one automatic re-enrolment date in any period of three years, or

(b) secure that for any employer there is not more than one automatic re-enrolment date in any period of three years.

(2) Subsection (1) does not restrict the provision that regulations may make about the timing of a jobholder’s automatic re-enrolment date (“the relevant date”) in the following cases.

(3) The first case is where the jobholder became an active member of a scheme in accordance with regulations under section 4 and—

(a) at any time before the end of the minimum period under that section, the jobholder ceases to be an active member of the scheme or the scheme ceases to be a scheme of the relevant kind for the purposes of that section,

(b) that event is not the effect of any action or omission by the jobholder or the employer, and

(c) the relevant date is the jobholder’s first automatic re-enrolment date after that time.

(4) The second case is where—

(a) at any time after the jobholder’s automatic enrolment date, the jobholder ceases to be an active member of a qualifying scheme or a qualifying scheme of which the jobholder is an active member ceases to be such a scheme,

(b) that event is not the effect of any action or omission by the jobholder or the employer, and

(c) the relevant date is the jobholder’s first automatic re-enrolment date after that time.

(5) The third case is where—

(a) there is a period beginning at any time after the jobholder’s automatic enrolment date during which the requirements of section 1(1)(a) or (c) are not met (so that the person is not a jobholder for that period), and

(b) the relevant date is the jobholder’s first automatic re-enrolment date after that period.

(6) Where subsection (3) applies—

(a) section 5(2) has effect as if the reference to an automatic enrolment scheme were, in relation to the relevant date, a reference to a scheme (“the new scheme”) of the kind referred to in subsection (3)(a), and

(b) section 4(2) to (5) applies in relation to the new scheme as it applied in relation to the scheme referred to in subsection (3).