Do you directly employ someone to provide you with care and support?
Auto enrolment is all over at the moment, but did you know that if you employ one or more people to help you with care and support, this means you are classed as an employer therefore auto enrolment duties apply to you.
If you receive care and support through an agency, they will pay for the workers national insurance contributions, making them responsible for the pension scheme.
It’s worth noting that if you use money provided to you from the NHS or local authority, you will still need to provide a pension scheme. If this is the case, they should build these costs into the money they provide you, including any national insurance contributions and other costs that may arise from auto enrolment – for support on this contact your local authority or NHS.
You can work out if you need to put your care/support worker into a pension scheme, by taking consideration of their age and earnings. If you do need to put them into a scheme, you will have to pay the minimum contribution into it, which currently stands at 1% of the workers earnings, but it will rise over the next few years.
To work out what contributions you need to make, you can use The Pensions Regulators calculator here.
If you want to find out when you need to provide a pension scheme, you will need to find out your staging date. If you are unsure how to do this, email phillipa@loftusstowe.com or call 01909 512 120