There are two factors which determine whether a worker is an eligible jobholder for auto-enrolment purposes:
The worker is aged 22 but has not reached state retirement age Their earnings exceed the “earnings trigger”Historically, that earnings trigger used to be the PAYE threshold (Lower Personal Allowance). The link to the Lower Personal Allowance was broken from April 2015 when the Personal Allowance increased to £10,600 but the Earnings Trigger remained at the previous years’ figure of £10,000.
Draft legislation has now published which confirms that the earnings trigger for 2016/2017 will remain at £10,000. It also confirms that the qualifying earnings band figures will remain linked to the Lower Earnings (LEL) and Upper Earnings (UEL) limits for NI purposes. Effectively there is no change for 2016/2017 to the Lower Qualifying Earnings Band figure but the Upper Qualifying Earnings Band figure will rise to the new UEL annual figure of £43,000.
The Order also confirms the rounding figures to be used for pay reference periods.
