Private Pensions

Social Security Policy and Legislation Division is responsible for the formulation and development of policy and legislation on private pensions in Northern Ireland.  In general, Northern Ireland’s pensions policy and legislation operates in line with corresponding pension provision in Great Britain. In effect, there is a single system of pensions across the UK.  Additionally, the pensions regulatory regime, for example, the Pensions Regulator, and the Pensions Ombudsman and the Pension Protection Fund operate UK wide.

Starting with the largest employers first, from October 2012 onwards, employers will be required to automatically enrol eligible workers into a qualifying pension scheme, if they are not already in one. Both workers and employers will pay into the pension, and the Government will also contribute in the form of tax relief. Medium and small employers will follow in stages over the next several years.

Automatic enrolment will help address the issues that prevent people from saving into a pension scheme, such as:

The Pensions Regulator will be writing to all employers in advance of their automatic enrolment date to inform them of when they need to take action and what they need to do to comply.

For more information on what this means for you visit www.nidirect.gov.uk/workplacepensions

There is a toolkit to help people understand the workplace pension reforms available from Workplace pension toolkit

For more information on the policy and background to workplace pension reform see Helping people save more for their retirement through workplace pensions

Workplace pension information line

Phone number: 0845 600 1268
Text phone: 0845 850 0363
Opening hours: Monday to Friday 8.00 am to 6.00 pm