Standard Life : partners with Sage to simplify auto enrolment payroll process for employers

30 May 2017

Standard Life, the investment company, has fully integrated its auto enrolment solution with Sage, significantly reducing the administrative burden for employers who are setting up and running workplace pensions for employees. From today, employers who use Sage 50 payroll software will be able to send employee and pension contribution data securely, directly, and in one click to Standard Life.

Replacing manual extraction and exchange of payroll files with this pared-down payroll process saves employers time and allows them to focus on other parts of their business. Small employers who do not typically have dedicated payroll or human resources functions to meet their auto enrolment obligations will now have access to straight through processing as well as the reassurance of phone support. In addition, Standard Life is offering Sage 50 clients a 50% discount if they set up a new workplace pension before 31 August 2017. This reduced price will apply for the entire lifetime of the Standard Life pension scheme.
At the same time, Sage is offering a 50% discount on the set-up fee of a new pensions module to these customers as well as to employers not currently with Sage who are setting up a Standard Life workplace pension. This offer is also available until 31 August 2017.

Since the Government's auto enrolment initiative began in October 2012, over 7.6 million people have been enrolled in qualifying workplace pension schemes, with Standard Life having enrolled over 1 million new members at the end of November 2016.

Alan Ritchie, Head of Employer & Trustee Proposition at Standard Life, said: '2017 is a peak year for small businesses to take the first steps towards a high-quality workplace pension - we are over halfway through with 900,000 employers having staged and another 600,000 to come. By integrating with Sage's leading payroll technology, we continue to support businesses to ensure their auto enrolment experience is a success.'

'For many businesses, auto enrolment isn't simply about meeting the obligation to have a workplace pension - it's about setting up a high-quality scheme that provides an engaging, valuable, long-term investment in the future of their employees. A quality pension can aid the recruitment, retention and reward of some of the best talent in their field. Our partnership with Sage will help small businesses to achieve this while reducing their administrative burdens.'

Dan Docherty, Director Product Marketing, Sage, said: 'We develop our technology to ensure tasks, such as automatic enrolment, are as pain-free as possible for businesses.

'Companies can use our technology to assess their workforce and automatically enrol the required employees to ensure they comply with legislation. Along with all the automatic enrolment tasks, such as opt in, opt out and postponement, they can also import and export pension data. This makes the interaction between a company's pension provider, such as Standard Life, and payroll as seamless as possible.

'Teaming up with Standard Life means we are able to support even more businesses in eliminating what can be an administrative burden; helping owners free up time that they can use to build their businesses instead.'

Ends

Media enquiries

For further information, contact:

Nicki Lundy, Senior Media Affairs Manager, Standard Life +44 131 245 2737; nicki_lundy@standardlife.com

About Standard Life

• Standard Life was established in Edinburgh in 1825. Today it is a global investment company helping people to invest and manage their money.
• Around 4.5 million customers and clients across 45 countries trust Standard Life with their financial future and Standard Life is responsible for the administration of over £360 billion of their assets. Standard Life also supports over 25 million customers through Indian and Chinese associate and joint venture businesses.
• Standard Life Investments actively manages £278 billion worldwide, offering global asset management expertise with strong investment capabilities and performance.
• Standard Life employs around 6,300 people internationally - through businesses in the UK, Europe, North America, Asia and Australia.
• Standard Life plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange with around 1.2 million individual shareholders.
• Wherever Standard Life operates in the world, it is motivated by a sense of responsibility. That is what has helped it be a sustainable business over the long term. Standard Life is proud to be listed as a leader for corporate sustainability in its industry in the Dow Jones Sustainability™ Indices (DJSI World and DJSI Europe).

You can follow Standard Life on www.twitter.com/StandardLifeplc

All figures at 31 March 2017