Commentary on Sections PART 1 – Pension Scheme Membership for Jobholders CHAPTER 1 – Employers’ Duties Section 7: Jobholder’s right to opt in
There may be jobholders who are not participating in workplace saving because they opted out or cancelled their active membership, or do not qualify for automatic enrolment because they are aged between 16 and 22 or between pensionable age and age 75.
Section 7 allows such jobholders to require their employer to make arrangements to enrol them into an automatic enrolment scheme by giving them notice. The jobholder can give notice to opt in under this section more than once in a 12 month period, although the employer is not obliged to accept more than one notice in 12 months. Therefore, employers are not required to keep enrolling a jobholder who has opted out a number of times in the same year.
This process, the details of the notice required and the date from which membership must be effected are to be prescribed in regulations (subsection (4)).