We now have something definitive from The Pension Regulator (TPR) on the multi director/no contract issue, which has been a cause of confirm for a while – was opt out available to companies with more than one officer (director(s) or secretary), or just restricted to single officer companies?
TPRs guidance was muddled on this previously.
The new guidance is here:
No staff to automatically enrol? | The Pensions Regulator | The Pensions Regulator
which is a sub page of
Your step-by-step guide to automatic enrolment | The Pensions Regulator
“If you don’t have any staff other than directors, you may not have any automatic enrolment duties. You won’t have any duties if the only people working for you are:
you as the sole director, or
a number of directors, none of whom has an employment contract, or
a number of directors, only one of whom has an employment contract
“Automatic enrolment will apply if more than one director has a contract of employment.
“You can find more information about employment contracts on the employment status section of the GOV.UK website. You can find more information about your duties if you’re a director in automatic enrolment enquiries.
“What do you need to do?
“If you receive a letter which includes your staging date and you believe that automatic enrolment duties don’t apply to you, please email customersupport@autoenrol.tpr.gov.uk and complete the details in the pre-populated message that opens when you select our email address. You’ll need your letter code icon question mark, PAYE reference icon question mark and Companies House number icon question mark (if you have one) to hand.”
We don’t think there is any practical difference between directors and secretaries in this instance, the key thing being they are office holders rather than staff.
So the multi opt out for officers (plural) without contracts seems confirmed.