The DWP has today confirmed that European workers will be excluded from the scope of automatic enrolment. Earlier this year the DWP consulted on proposals to exclude employees who work both in the UK and in other EU member states (“dual-status” employees who are both jobholders under automatic enrolment and also qualifying persons under IORP). Without the exclusion, the schemes into which these dual-status employees would be automatically enrolled would need to be registered as cross-border IORPs.
In the response to the consultation, the NAPF agreed that there were compelling reasons for excluding dual-status workers from automatic enrolment. Employers must not be put into a position where they cannot comply with their automatic enrolment duties without incurring disproportionate costs and administrative burdens. Because employers are already facing additional costs and administrative complexity as a result of automatic enrolment, the Government needs to do all it can to help ease the burdens for employers.
The DWP has now laid regulations which will bring forward the exclusion. The regulations will come into force on the 2 July 2012.