Employee Classifications for Pensions Automatic Enrolment

The Automatic Enrolment Assessment process for pensions assesses employee age, earnings, and other criteria to determine eligibility for automatic enrolment in a qualifying pension scheme. The process assigns a classification to each employee it assesses.

It is useful to understand the criteria and eligibility determination for each classification.

Employee Classification	Criteria for Classification	Eligibility for Pensions Automatic Enrolment
Not yet assessed	Assigned automatically to all employees by new hire process.	None.
Age exempt (non-entitled worker)	Worker aged below 16 or over 75.	Not eligible for automatic enrolment and not entitled to join a qualifying pension scheme.
Entitled worker	Worker aged 16-74 (not a pensioner). Works in UK. Qualifying earnings in pay reference period (PRP) are below the lower earnings threshold for qualifying earnings.	Entitled to join a pension scheme, which need not be a qualifying scheme. The employer has no obligation to contribute.
Non-eligible jobholder	Works in the UK. Matches one of these:: Worker aged 16-21 with qualifying earnings in the PRP above the earnings trigger for automatic enrolment. Worker aged between state pension age (SPA) and 74, with qualifying earnings in the PRP above the earnings trigger for automatic enrolment. Worker aged 16 to 74 with qualifying earnings in the PRP at or below the earnings trigger for automatic enrolment but above the lower earnings threshold.	Not eligible for automatic enrolment, but can opt in to a qualifying pension scheme. If so, the employer must contribute.
Eligible jobholder	Worker aged 22 to SPA. Works in UK. Qualifying earnings in the PRP are above the earnings trigger for automatic enrolment.	Employer must enrol the employee automatically in a qualifying pension scheme, unless the employee opts out.
Exempt	Assigned manually to an employee to prevent them from being assessed.	Not assessed for eligibility.