Registration opens today for employers ahead of the roll out of the new pension auto-enrolment scheme ‘My Future Fund’ which begins on 1 January.
Businesses can register their company details and set up a payment method through the employer portal on the My Future Fund website.
The portal will remain open for employers to register at all times, however, to make sure that businesses are ready to begin making contributions in time for the launch of the scheme, they are advised to complete their registration in advance.
If an employer has not completed the company profile or setup a payment method in advance of contributions being due, they will run the risk of fines, penalties and potential prosecution.
My Future Fund is designed to help around 750,000 workers to begin saving for their retirement.
All employees not already in an occupational pension scheme, aged between 23 and 60 and earning over €20,000 across all of their employments, will be automatically enrolled in the new scheme.
It will be gradually phased in over a decade, with both employer and employee contributions starting at 1.5% and increasing every three years by 1.5% until they eventually reach 6% by year ten.
The State will top up contributions by €1 for every €3 saved by the employee. This is in addition to the €3 that will also be contributed by the employer.
Eligible employees will be automatically enrolled but will have the choice after six months participation to opt-out or suspend participation.
Ireland is the last OECD country to have a scheme like this.
A new body, the National Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings Authority (NAERSA), has been established to run the system.
Employers have expressed concerns about the administrative burden of the new scheme but the Government has insisted that NAERSA will handle the bulk of the work.
The authority will identify and enrol eligible employees, manage opt-ins, opt-outs and suspensions, calculate contributions, and notify employers of amounts due through payroll.
NAERSA will take payroll data from Revenue and run eligibility checks.
When it has identified an employee as meeting all of the eligibility criteria, it will enrol them and send an updated Automatic Enrolment Payroll Notification (AEPN) to their employer’s payroll to notify them of their enrolment.
Minister for Social Protection Dara Calleary has said that the vast majority of employers are in support of the new automatic enrollment in the MyFutureFund pension scheme.
Speaking on RTÉ’s News at One, Mr Calleary said that there are some 750,000 people, who currently do not have any pension provision for when they retire.
“This is about the fact that Ireland is the last country in the OECD to implement an auto enrolment savings programme,” he said.
“This is about that we have worked now for six years in consultation with the employer organisations, including IBEC, and everybody agrees we need this system.
“I’m absolutely sure that we can get this up and running and we resolve any challenges that are there,” said Mr Calleary.
Read more: Three-quarters of businesses expect auto-enrolment to hit profits – survey