Personal Pensions

If the company does not offer a Stakeholder/ Pension scheme the employee can pay into a personal pension themselves. The employer can deduction the pension amount from the employee and pay it to the pension company on their behalf.

With a personal pension the employee would pay regular monthly amounts or a lump sum to the pension provider who will invest it on their behalf. The fund is usually run by financial organisations such as building societies, banks, insurance companies or unit trusts.

Personal pensions may be suitable for:

• people who are self-employed
• people who are not working but can afford to pay for a pension
• employees whose employer does not offer a company pension scheme
• employees who have the option to pay into a company pension, but choose not to
• employees on a moderate income who wish to top up the money they would get from a company pension

A personal pension may not be the best choice if:

• The employer offers a company pension scheme
• The employer offers access to a stakeholder pension scheme, with an employer contribution

Setting up a Personal 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, if applicable

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

4) Type of Scheme - select Personal Pension (PP) from the drop down menu

5) Reduction - if applicable, tick this box to reduce contributions by the basic rate of tax

6) 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

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

8) 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

9) Click Save

Applying the Pension Scheme to an employee

To apply the 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 PP 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 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 PP 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 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.)