Are you aware of your Employer Pension Obligation?

Employer Pension Obligation

Where an employee is not eligible to join a company pension scheme within 6 months of commencing employment, an employer must provide access to a standard Personal Retirement Saving’s Account (PRSA). This applies to all employers regardless of the size of the workforce and it also applies to all employees regardless of the nature of their contract i.e., fixed-term, casual, full-time, part-time etc.

At present there is no legal obligation for employers to set up or contribute to a pension scheme for their employees. If your employer doesn’t have a pension scheme or if you are an ‘excluded employee’, your employer will need to provide you with access to at least one Standard PRSA. (Pension Authority 2021). 

If all employees are eligible to join the company pension scheme within six months of joining the company an employer is not obliged to provide access to a PRSA. Employees who contribute to any company pension scheme which does not offer a facility for making additional voluntary contributions, must be given access to a Standard PRSA by the employer.

An employer must inform employee’s that they can contribute to a PRSA and employers must also facilitate the PRSA provider with access to employee’s during working hours at the workplace to set up the PRSA. Employers may also provide an employee with paid time off to set up a PRSA.

Any PRSA contributions due to the PRSA provider must be paid by an employer by the 21^stof the month, after the month in which they were deducted, with no deduction being allowed for employers’ expenses. For Example, PRSA contributions deducted during the month of April must be paid to the PRSA provider by 21^stMay.

If an employee chooses to enter a contract with another PRSA provider other than the Standard PRSA provided by the employer, the employer is not obliged to make PRSA deductions from the employee’s salary and then pay them over to the employee’s chosen PRSA provider.

An employer must notify the employee’s and the PRSA provider, in writing, at least once a month, of the total amount deducted from the employee’s salary and the total amount of the employer’s contributions, if any, in the preceding month. The most efficient way to do this is to show the contributions on an employee’s pay slip.

For more on Employer Obligations read:

Gender Pay Gap Ireland

Hiring a First Time Employee

Benefit in Kind

Deductions When Calculating Employee Net Pay

What to expect from the Auto Enrolment Pension Scheme

Public Holidays

Paycheck Plus, Your Outsourced Payroll Provider

Paycheck Plus is an award-winning Irish payroll company that specialises in payroll outsourcing. With industry-leading accuracy levels, strict levels of confidentiality, our affordable payroll service provides comprehensive outsourced payroll solutions to organisations of all sizes.

Our award-winning payroll firm offers a specialist payroll service which ensures payroll accuracy. Our payroll services include WRC inspection assistance, payroll consultancy and redundancy management. While our bespoke payroll software lets you consolidate your payroll processes into one simple and efficient workflow

For more information on our Irish payroll services simply request a payroll quote or call our Irish payroll bureau on +353 (0) 1 905 9400

Alternatively, you can contact our UK payroll agency on +44 (0) 161 464 8720