COSR Pensions

What is contracting-out?

Contracting-out is when an employee leaves the additional State Pension (currently the State Second Pension; prior to April 2002 - the State Earnings Related Pension Scheme (SERPS)) and joins a contracted-out occupational pension or personal/ stakeholder pension instead. The employee will subsequently receive a pension from the scheme they have joined rather than from the additional State Pension. To reflect this, they receive a rebate of National Insurance contributions.

Setting up a COSR Pension on Bright Pay

To access this utility, click Employer:

1) Click Add within the Pension Schemes section on the menu toolbar

2) Enter your Employer Contracted-Out Number (ECON) in the field provided at the top of the screen

3) Under Name, enter the name of the policy and the reference number provided by the pension company

4) Type of Scheme - select Contracted-out Salary Related Scheme (COSR) from the drop down menu

5) Default Contributions - this is optional. Complete this section if you would like to apply default contributions to an employee who is added to this pension scheme. They can subsequently be changed for each employee as required

6) Within the Contact and Payment section, enter the contact details of the COSR pension provider

7) Under Payment, select the method of payment for remitting the pension contributions to the pension provider. If the method of payment is credit transfer, enter the pension provider's bank account details accordingly. A bank payment file facility is available within Payroll for the payment of pensions to the pension provider

8) Click Save

Applying the Pension Scheme to an employee:

To apply the COSR pension to an employee, click Payroll and select the employee:

TO ENTER A PENSION DEDUCTION BY AMOUNT:

1) Under Additions & Deductions click the Add icon

2) Under Deductions > Pension, select the COSR pension scheme

3) Select the £ sign from the drop down menu and enter the Employee Contribution

4) Select the £ sign from the drop down menu and enter any Employee Additional Voluntary Contribution, if applicable

5) Select the £ sign from the drop down menu and enter the Employer Contribution, if applicable

TO ENTER A PERCENTAGE-BASED PENSION:


1) Under Additions & Deductions click the Add icon

2) Under Deductions > Pension, select the COSR pension scheme

3) Select the % sign from the drop down menu and enter the Employee Contribution percentage amount

4) Select the % sign from the drop down menu and enter any Employee Additional Voluntary Contribution percentage amount, if applicable

5) Select the % sign from the drop down menu and enter the Employer Contribution percentage amount, if applicable

Remitting the Pension Contributions to the Pension Provider using a Bank Payment File

To access this utility, click Payroll > Pay > Pay Pension Schemes:

1) Select the employees you wish to include in the bank payment file

2) To create the Bank Payments File, click Create BACS File

3) Select the Bank Account you wish to pay from and select the appropriate bank File Format

4) Click Save As to save the bank file to a location of your choice. The bank payment file is now created and can be uploaded through your bank facility when ready.

5) To print the Pension Payment Report, simply click Print

6) To export the Pensions Payment Report, click Export (the report can be copied to Excel, CSV, XPS or copied to clipboard.)