Since 1 October 2012 (subject to the employer's own staging date), all 'workers' have to be auto-enrolled into a qualifying pension scheme without any active decision on their part to join the qualifying pension scheme.

Each employer will be given a date from when they will have to provide their employees with a qualifying pension scheme. This is known as the staging date.

A 'worker' is defined as any individual who:

• Works under a contract of employment (an employee); or
• Has a contract to perform work or services personally (i.e. they cannot send a substitute or sub-contract the work) and is not undertaking the work as part of their own business.

you can find out more about auto-enrolment and how this may apply to you by visiting the gov.uk website.

Important note: You can choose to 'opt out' of membership of a qualifying pension scheme but only after you have been automatically enrolled by your employer.