(1)    All employers with more than 5 employees excluding 'self employed' personnel MUST designate a  stakeholder scheme that has been registered with the Occupational Pensions Regulatory Authority (OPRA) and MUST make the scheme available to ‘Relevant Employees’ if ANY of their employees are classed as Relevant Employees unless an Acceptable Alternative is offered. Relevant employees are those who have been employees for at least 3 months and who have not earned less than the Lower Earnings Limit in the last 3 months.

(2)    Employers must consult with their employees (there is no specific consultation method stated) prior to selecting and designating a particular scheme.

(3)    All employees eligible to join the scheme must be given details including the name and address of the designated provider. Employees asking to join the scheme must be given details within 2 weeks.

(4)    The stakeholder provider must be given “reasonable” access to the employees.  It is not stated whether this needs to be in ‘works’ time or whether it could be during break periods or between shifts.

(5)    Employers must be able to deduct the required contribution from a scheme member’s wages or salary and pay the amount deducted to the stakeholder provider by the 19^th of the month following the month in which the deduction was made.  (As for P.A.Y.E., N.I. and other Pension Schemes).

(6)    Employees must be given details of the choices available for deductions and the mechanism of how they work.

(7)    An Employer must check periodically that the scheme remains registered with the Occupational Pensions Regulatory Authority (OPRA).  If the scheme ceases to be registered with OPRA then a new scheme has to be designated.

(8)    If the employer wishes to change from one designated scheme to another, employees who want to continue to contribute to the previous scheme must be allowed to do so.

(9)    Employers must inform the stakeholder provider when employees leave employment.