Clause 2
Pensions Bill
10:45 am
Mike O'Brien (Minister of State (Pension Reform), Department for Work and Pensions; North Warwickshire, Labour)
I beg to move Government amendment No. 116, in clause 2, page 2, line 4, after ‘jobholder’ insert
‘, without ceasing to be employed by the employer,’.
An employer will need to be able not only automatically to enrol people, but in certain circumstances to terminate participation in a pension scheme. The circumstances might well be involve ceasing to employ someone, so we thought that we should make it clear in the legislation that if someone is no longer employed, the obligation to continue to have them automatically enrolled in the pension scheme ceases. That was not in the original Bill, but when we considered the point we thought that we should make that explicit in case employers are in any doubt whether they are obliged to continue making contributions after an employment has ceased. The purpose of the amendment is to clarify the duty not to terminate active membership of a qualifying scheme, which does not apply when the action concerned involves the cessation of employment.
I hope that the Committee will support the amendment. It is a business-friendly amendment to ensure that current employment law and practices regarding the end of employment are not fettered by unrelated pensions obligations.