01-07-2025

During the summer periods some employers in certain sectors such as hospitality or farming may have the need to take on extra staff to cover increase workloads in their business, typically this will include seasonal workers such as fruit pickers or to cover certain types of labouring work where there is an increased demand for a short period of time.

HMRC are lending support to The Pensions Regulator in reminding employers of their duties pertaining to the provision of workplace pensions, for short-term workers that might be engaged for a period not exceeding three months.

Where such workers are employed through the business and subject to PAYE, employers must carry out the correct worker assessments to determine if they need to be auto enrolled into a qualifying workplace pension scheme.

The HMRC employer bulletin explains the following:

Employers who take on extra staff over the summer must:

  • Check if these workers are eligible for automatic enrolment into a workplace pension
  • Individually assess any seasonal or temporary staff every time they pay them. This includes staff with variable hours and pay, whether they are employed for a few days or longer

The assessment of the workforce is required to identify potential Eligible job-holders as they will need to be automatically enrolled into a workplace pension, the definition of such workers includes:

  • Short term seasonal workers
  • Staff who work irregular hours (casual workers) with variable work patterns or earn flexible incomes
  • Temporary workers on a fixed contract for less than 3 months*

*Where contracts are less than three months employers will still need to comply with the auto enrolment duties but review section below on postponement.

To be an Eligible jobholder for enrolment they must have earnings when first paid in the relevant pay cycle that is above the qualifying threshold of £192 a week or £833 if paid monthly and ordinarily work in the UK.

Contributions are payable on earnings between the Lower and upper limits £120 per week or £520 per month and £967 per week and £1,048 per month. Other qualifying schemes may apply different earnings criteria.

Once staff have been enrolled, the employer must pay regular contributions into their pension scheme. The minimum contribution due is 8%, split between the employee as 5% and employer 3%, although the employer can pay more than this.

If member's earnings fall below the lower limits the employer may stop paying contributions unless the rules of the pension scheme they have enrolled into require them to continue. You should check with the pension scheme what the rules are.

Employers can apply a postponement period of up to three months to delay the auto enrolment assessment duties for an eligible jobholder that is not likely to be employed for more than three months, but be aware if the contract extends beyond this the auto enrolment duties must be applied.

Employers who fail to comply with their workplace pensions’ duties may receive a warning notice with a deadline to comply. Those who continue to fail, risk a fine.

If an employer has staff who they know will be working for them for less than three months, they can use postponement to delay assessing those employees. This pauses the duty to assess those staff until the end of the three-month postponement period.

Employers can find out more about postponement and how to enrol staff on irregular hours or incomes on the Pensions Regulator website.


"I know it is not till next June but just booked on The Payroll Centre's Annual conference. This is my must do course/conference of the year, having been almost every year for 10+ years, only missing for my wedding and having a baby, I even went one year with a 3 month old in tow! "

Andi Herrington
Director of Payroll Services at Wallis Payroll Ltd

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