Pensions Guide - The People's Pension

The People's Pension is a pension scheme provided by People's Partnership. It is one of the schemes you can use for automatic enrolment and is open to businesses of all sizes and sectors.

Setting up The People's Pension

When you sign up for The People's Pension on their website please remember to:

  • Note down the account number, as you will need it later.
  • Set the 'pay reference period' to align to tax periods. For example, if you pay your employees monthly, the tax period runs from the 6th of one month to the 5th of the next.

The People's Pension normally uses a type of tax relief that HMRC calls Relief at Source. You can also ask them for an alternative tax relief option. We call tax reliefs by the same names as HMRC, but The People's Pension uses different names, as shown below:

Tax Relief Type Name Used by The People's Pension Effect
Relief at Source Net You deduct a smaller pension contribution, which you pay to The People's Pension. They then claim the difference from HMRC.
Net Pay Arrangement Gross The taxable pay is reduced so less tax is taken from the employee's wages.

On top of the employee's pension contribution, most employers also make a contribution. The employer's contribution is not subject to tax and is, therefore, not affected by either type of tax relief.

Setting up The Payroll Site to Work with The People's Pension

Add the pension scheme:

  1. Click on the 'Workplace Pensions' option.
  2. Click the 'Pension Schemes' tab.
  3. Click 'Add Pension Scheme'.
  4. Click 'Edit Details'.
    • Name: choose any name for your pension scheme.
    • Type of Pension Interface: The People's Pension.
    • Provider Reference: leave blank.
    • Employer Reference: account number for The People's Pension.
    • Payment Source: leave blank.
  5. Click 'Save Changes'.

If you have weekly and monthly pay runs you will need two accounts with The People's Pension. Please add them to The Payroll Site as two pension schemes, as follows:

  • Give them different names (e.g. People's weekly and People's monthly).
  • Use the account numbers from The People's Pension.

Next, add starting contributions for the pension scheme. These pension contributions will be used for each new member.

  1. Click the 'Starting Contributions' tab.
  2. Choose the contribution type relevant to your pension scheme. For more information, please see our Overview.
  3. For anything other than the minimum option, you must set the 'Pensionable Pay' and 'Contribution' columns and click 'Save Changes'.
  4. Add more contribution types if needed.

Enrolling Your Staff

Once you have set up the pension scheme, you need to know whom to enrol. Ensure that your duties start date is set on the 'Employer' page and then, during every pay run, the system will prompt you if you need to enrol anyone. For more information, see our guide on How to Assess Your Staff.

Sending Data to The People's Pension

Your pension file is available to download once you have completed a pay run. Please follow these steps:

  1. Complete your pay run and click the 'Confirm Payments' button.
  2. Click the 'Pensions' tab. If there are enrolments or contributions to transfer, you will see the option to create a file.
  3. Click 'Create'.
  4. To view the contents, tick 'Show File' and then 'View Data'.
  5. Click 'Download'.
  6. If you see an option to open the document in Microsoft Office Excel, beware! It can change the file and cause upload errors. Choose the 'Save' option instead.
  7. Upload the file to The People's Pension using their instructions.
  8. If anyone joins or leaves the pension, the 'Pensions' tab has a 'Mark as Done' button. Click this button after you have successfully uploaded the file to The People's Pension.