To have extra pension contributions taken, you will need to set up an Additional Voluntary Contribution (AVC). You can see the suggested areas that may need review on the deduction set up below for the EE and ER and AVC contributions for an auto-enrolment threshold scheme.
You need to refer to your pension provider's guidelines for the deduction setup.
If your EE and ER Pension deductions are set as Threshold or Pensionable, then your AVC deduction should be set up aligned and have the same Percentage basis.
Percentage Basis
If the Default Basis has been set to Percentage, then this field becomes active. The two options required for the auto-enrolment pension are either Threshold or Pensionable.
Threshold – If the pension scheme dictates that the contributions should only be based on pensionable earnings between the lower and upper thresholds set on the Pension Parameters table, then this field should be set to Threshold.
Pensionable – If the pension scheme dictates that the contributions should be based on all pensionable earnings, this field should be set to Pensionable.
📌 Note: If no input amount is entered at the worker level on the deduction, then the system defaults and uses the minimum percentages set within the Pension Parameters.
Taxable Relief %
If your pension scheme is a net pay arrangement and the employee should receive tax relief in their pay i.e. their gross pay is reduced by the pension contribution before tax is calculated), you will need to enter 100.00 in this field.
This also needs to be set if you are creating an AVC deduction, too. To set up the AVC, you need to create a new standard deduction.
📌 Note: Your AVC needs to be in the same order to deduct as the regular pension deduction.
Assign your AVC to the pension Scheme
Assuming that this has been set up, the steps below show you how to assign the AVC against the scheme.
Click Payroll, then click Definitions.
Click Pensions, then click Pensions Scheme Maintenance.
Search for and select the scheme to add the AVC to.
To enter Modify Mode, press CTRL+M.
Double-click the AVC deduction field.
Search for and select the particular AVC deduction.
Click Select.
Review your changes and once satisfied, click Exit.
Below is an example of the above in Access Pay & Bill for reference.
You can input the one AVC deduction to all schemes if you wish, as you can amend the deduction at the worker level.