Pension providers overview

Overview

ABBPay calculates workplace pension contributions in every pay run and gets them to your provider in the format that provider expects. This article shows which providers are supported, how contributions reach them, and where to find the step-by-step guide for each one.

Supported providers

Before you start

• You need access to the Pensions area (Payroll > Pensions). If you cannot see it, ask an administrator to check your role permissions.
• Payroll must be switched on for your company's country.
• Keep your employer reference from the provider to hand.

How it works for every provider

1. Set up the scheme. Add the scheme under Payroll > Pensions and choose the provider.
2. Create groups. A group holds the contribution rules for a set of employees, for example "Standard Employees" or "Directors".
3. Enrol employees. Employees join a group, either automatically (UK auto-enrolment) or by you.
4. Run payroll. ABBPay works out each employee's contribution and the employer's share and deducts it correctly for tax purposes.
5. Send or export. Open the pay run's Pension Contributions page to send, download or email the contribution file.
6. Record payment. Mark contributions as paid to the provider, with a reference.

UK auto-enrolment, common to every UK provider

These features work the same whichever UK provider you use.

Pension groups

Each group sets:

• Contribution type: salary sacrifice, deducted before tax (net pay arrangement), deducted after tax, or relief at source (80% taken from net pay, the provider claims the 20% basic-rate relief).
• Deduction type: a percentage, or a fixed amount per pay period.
• Employee and employer rates.
• Earnings basis: Pensionable Pay, Qualifying Earnings, banded qualifying earnings, or total earnings.
• Contribution basis for salary sacrifice: pay before sacrifice (the default) or pay after sacrifice.
• Payment day, and whether to automatically enrol eligible employees.

Each pay run checks auto-enrolment groups against the statutory minimums (8% in total and 3% from the employer, on banded qualifying earnings) and flags any shortfall. Employer pension money paid through salary sacrifice counts towards the employer minimum.

Assessing and enrolling employees

ABBPay checks every active employee each morning and puts them in one of these categories: eligible jobholder, non-eligible jobholder, entitled worker, postponed or not a worker.

• Eligible jobholders are enrolled into your default scheme and group automatically, and receive their auto-enrolment notice by email (and by WhatsApp if your company uses it and the employee has a number).
• Sacrificed pay is ignored when testing eligibility, so salary sacrifice never pushes someone out by accident.
• Employees ABBPay cannot assess, for example because a date of birth or start date is missing, are listed so you can fix them.

On an employee's Pension tab you can see their status, estimated annual earnings, enrolment date and pension reference. You can also choose Auto Enrol, Postpone, Offer Opt-In, Offer to Join, Re-enrol or Opt Out, or mark the employee as exempt. For an opt-out, record the date and a reason (employee choice, leaving employment, over State Pension age or pension protection).

Postponement

You can postpone assessment for 1 to 3 months, once per enrolment cycle. ABBPay tracks the statutory notice against its deadline (six weeks and a day). Your company setting decides whether the notice is sent to the employee automatically or held for you to review. If an employee has no email address, the notice is held so you can print it and hand it over. Notice status shows as Not sent, Failed to send, Overdue or Give by, and overdue notices appear on the pensions overview.

Re-enrolment and the Declaration of Compliance

Re-enrolment is due every three years from your staging date. The dashboard shows whether it is Upcoming, Imminent, Overdue or Completed, with the next date and the declaration deadline. ABBPay emails you daily reminders about the deadline. You can download a Declaration of Compliance PDF to copy into The Pensions Regulator's portal; submitting it to the Regulator is a manual step.

After each pay run

When you complete a UK pay run, contributions are automatically queued for every provider connected directly to ABBPay. Schemes that use file export are skipped, so you export those yourself. Open the pay run's Pension Contributions page to see each scheme's employee and employer totals, per-employee lines, the submission status (Not sent yet, Pending, Submitted or Failed) and the send or resend buttons. You can export CSV, Excel, PAPDIS XML or PAPDIS CSV from there.

To record a payment to a provider, tick the contributions in the scheme's payments screen and mark them paid, adding a reference and notes.

Employee view

UK employees see their pension deductions on their payslip.

Tips

• Set the default scheme and group before the first morning check, so new eligible employees land in the right place.
• Fix "cannot assess" employees promptly. They are not enrolled until their details are complete.
• Review the Pension Contributions page after every pay run, even when sending is automatic.

Related articles

• Smart Pension integration guide
• The People's Pension integration guide
• NEST pension guide
• Other UK pension providers guide
• Irish pension schemes guide
• Nigerian PFA pension guide