Submit pension data to The People's Pension

Ensure pension information in Payroll matches the details in The People's Pension.

Check your employees have National Insurance (NI) numbers entered in their record.
The People's Pension need all employees to have NI numbers. Read their article Why do I have to include all my employees’ National Insurance (NI) numbers when submitting data? If you have further queries please contact The People's Pension.
Check your duties start date is correct. The duties start date is on the payroll Summary screen.

Check your People's Pension details >

The pension information in Payroll and People's Pension must match exactly.

From the Pensions tab select Add a new pension.
Select the People's Pension link from the Existing Pension section.
Select View/Edit on each group and confirm the details are correct.

Using Groups in The People's Pension scheme >

You can set up groups within your pension scheme.

This allows you to set different levels of contributions for different employees.

For example:

You create a group called Full-time. You add full-time employees to this group so they receive 5% employer contributions.
You create a group called Part-time. You add part-time employees to this group so they receive 3% employer contributions.

It is important to have different groups for different pay frequencies.

For example:

You have both weekly and monthly payrolls
You have part-time weekly paid employees and part-time monthly paid employees
You create a group called Part-time and assign all the part-time employees to the group

You are making weekly and monthly paid employees part of the same group. This will cause you problems when you process your payroll.

The solution is to create a Part-time monthly and Part-time weekly group.

If you have TPP already set up within your payroll, you may already have groups created.

If employees from different payrolls are part of the same group, you may receive errors. This happens when you process your payroll.

You need to create new appropriate groups and make your employees part of the relevant group.

Read our article Fix pension errors - The People's Pension.

Running payroll - things to be aware of >

You will run your payroll in the usual way.

There are 2 possible error messages you may see at the Edit Pay screen of the pay run.

Scenario 1:

You already have People's Pension set up in payroll. You receive the following message at the Edit Pay screen of the pay run:

This employee's pension scheme does not have a frequency set. Select the Pensions tab, then Edit Pensions, and choose the scheme frequency.

This is because The People's Pension only allows one pay frequency per pension scheme.

The pension scheme you are currently using has not had the pay frequency applied.

To apply the pay frequency to the pension scheme:

From the Pensions tab, next to your People's Pension, select Edit pension.
Select the Scheme frequency that matches the payroll you are currently running.
Select Save.
Run your payroll as usual. You will no longer get the message when running this pay frequency.

Scenario 2:

You have set the pay frequency in your pension scheme. You receive the following message at the Edit Pay screen of the pay run:

John Smith has a weekly pay cycle and a Monthly pension scheme. You must change their pension scheme from Manage Enrolment, then Change Pension Scheme.

The employee is being paid in a weekly pay run, but the pension scheme is set up with a monthly scheme frequency.

You can change the People's Pension scheme frequency to match the pay run you are running.

NOTE: Only do this if you aren't going to use the existing pay frequency. For example, the scheme is set as monthly, but you only have a weekly payroll. Otherwise, you need to set up another People's Pension scheme. Read our article Add The People's Pension scheme (opens in new tab).

Change the employee pension scheme:

Run payroll up to the Edit Pay window.
Select the employee.
From Manage Enrolment, select Change Pension Scheme.
Select the Pension Scheme and Pension Plan that matches your employee.
Do this for any other employees.
Run payroll as usual.

NOTE: The system will only let you view schemes applicable to the current pay frequency. For example, if you are in a weekly pay run, you will not see your existing monthly pension schemes.

You may want to run payroll for more than one pay frequency. For example, weekly and monthly payrolls.

You need to set up a separate People's Pension scheme for any further pay frequencies you have.

Read our article Add The People's Pension scheme (opens in new tab).

You need a unique ID for each pay frequency you want to run.

If you can't find needed information on The Peoples Pension website, you can contact them on 0300 330 1280.

If you receive error messages when running payroll:

Read our article Fix pension errors - The People's Pension

Send your pension submission directly to The People's Pension >

In the Summary tab, within the Pension submissions section select View Submission Details.
A summary of employee pension details and contributions appears for you to review. If any warnings appear, you must correct these by selecting Edit Employee.
Select Submit online.
In the Completed Pay Run summary select Pension submissions. Select View Submission Details. A summary of employee pension details and contributions appears for you to review. If any warnings appear, you must correct these by selecting Edit Employee.
Select Submit online.
Enter your People's Pension credentials and select Login.
TIP: If your Payroll links to an accountant, you will use either your own details or your accountants.

Your first submission to People's Pension commences.

When a submission is in progress, you can't edit a completed pay run. This is to prevent inconsistencies between payroll data, and data submitted to TPP.

A successful submission will display on your payroll Summary tab.

If you receive any errors, please read our article: