The Pensions Regulator is writing to the UK's biggest companies, alerting them to their new pension duties, which are introduced on a gradual or 'staged' basis according to employer size.
The regulator is providing a five-point checklist alongside with the notification letters, plus further information on its website. In the next six months, nearly 600 of the largest organisations employing about a third of the UK workforce (around 10 million employees) will have received letters marking 18 months to their particular duty date.
In due course, every employer in the UK will have received at least two letters as they approach their duty date.
Bill Galvin, chief executive of The Pensions Regulator, said: "Today we start in earnest our drive to help educate employers about what they must do to comply with workplace pension reform.
"Our message is that we urge every employer to check the approximate date they must comply. The date will vary between Oct 2012 and February 2016, depending on employer size.
"We are saying to the UK's 10,000 large employers with more than 250 staff to check your date now, read our guidance and use the five-point employer checklist to help prepare.
"For smaller employers, many of which will not need to automatically enrol staff until 2015 or 16, we suggest that for now you look up your duty date. Later this year we will be publishing a range of web tools to help smaller employers to understand what they need to do to comply."
At its stakeholder forum today the regulator will unveil its approach to educating employers. This will include a range of material tailored to the needs of employers of different sizes.
