UK Pension Assessment Process

Payroll Administrator Guide

Version
R2025.2.1
ft:lastEdition
2025-12-01
UK Pension Assessment Process

The auto-enrolled pension scheme assessment is run as part of the Calculate Payroll background job. You can initiate this job in Payroll > Overview by clicking Calculate in the Process Job drop-down list.

Note: The Calculate Payroll background job runs automatically when you click Commit in the Process Job drop-down list. You can also run the job in System Admin > Background Jobs.

When the Calculate Payroll background job is run as part of your payroll process during each pay run, any pay groups associated with the earning and deduction definitions that you have set up for your enrolled pension scheme are assessed. The background job assesses new employees, reassesses existing employees who might not have qualified in the past, and performs the following functions:

  • Implements employee and employer contribution percentages.
  • Creates deferral records for employees with a deferral.
  • Generates pension records for all other employees.

You can run the Calculate Payroll background job as many times as you need to before a pay period has been committed. Each time you run the assessment, the previous results are cleared, and Dayforce uses the most recent data to generate new results.

Important: When payroll corrections are made for a previous pay run, you will need to manually assess and adjust employees' qualification in the pension scheme. For example, an employee was overpaid in pay period 1 which, in turn, qualified the employee for auto-enrolment. When the correction is made to deduct those earnings from the employee in pay period 2, the administrator will need to manually evaluate if the employee qualified for auto-enrolment and, if not, adjust the pension records.

You can see the pension records of all employees in Pensions > Administration. To manage pension records for individual employees, go to the Payroll > Pension screen of the People feature. You can also view the pension scheme payroll elections for individual employees (where applicable) in the Payroll > Payroll Elections screen in the People feature.

Contribution Percentages

Dayforce checks the following, in this order, before implementing the employee and employer contribution percentages:

  1. The EE Contribution % and ER Contribution % in the Payroll > Pension screen of People. If the fields are populated, the values are used in the pension calculation.
  2. If the contribution fields in the Payroll > Pension screen in People aren't populated, Dayforce checks the employee and employer contribution fields in the Apply UK Pension Auto Enrolment rule.
  3. If the contribution fields in the Apply UK Pension Auto Enrolment rule aren't populated, Dayforce uses the default contribution values in Benefits Setup > Plans and Options.

Deferral Records

When a deferral has been applied to an employee, a deferral record is created for the employee with the appropriate deferral date.

For employees who don’t have a deferral applied, the job looks at an employee’s age, earnings, and hire date, and using this information, assesses which worker category and member status the employee falls into. The worker categories are as follows:

  • Eligible Jobholder
  • Non-eligible Jobholder
  • Entitled Worker
  • Deferred

The member statuses are as follows:

  • Auto-Enrol
  • Inactive
  • Opt-In
  • Opt-Out
  • Postponed

Worker Categories

Employees can fall into the following worker categories that exclude them from assessment:

  • No Employer Duty: Assign this worker category (and status) to temporary or contract employees who aren't eligible for the pension scheme.
  • Other Qualified Scheme: Assign this worker category to employees who are enrolled in another qualified pension scheme.

You must create pension records for these worker categories manually or import them. The job only assesses employees in these categories when an opt-in notification record has been created for them.

The following table outlines what action Dayforce takes depending on which worker category the assessment assigns to a worker.

Worker categories and member statuses

Worker Category

Current Member Status

New Member Status

Eligible Jobholder

  • N/A
  • Inactive
  • Auto-Enrol
  • Opt-In

Auto-Enrol

Eligible Jobholder

Opt-Out

Opt-Out

Eligible Jobholder

Cease Membership

Cease Membership

Non-eligible Jobholder

  • N/A
  • Inactive

Inactive

Non-eligible Jobholder

Opt-In

Auto-Enrol

Non-eligible Jobholder

Opt-Out

Opt-Out

Non-eligible Jobholder

Cease Membership

Cease Membership

Entitled Worker

  • N/A
  • Inactive

Inactive

Other Qualified Scheme

Inactive

Inactive

Other Qualified Scheme

Inactive with an Opt-In notification record

If worker category is assessed as Eligible or Non-eligible Jobholder, status is Opt-In

If worker category is assessed as Entitled Worker, status is Inactive

No Employer Duty

No Employer Duty

No Employer Duty

No Employer Duty

No Employer Duty with an Opt-In notification record

If worker category is assessed as Eligible or Non-eligible Jobholder, status is Opt-In

If worker category is assessed as Entitled Worker, status is Inactive

Employees who have an Opt-Out or Cease Membership status aren't assessed again for three years.