Employer Administration

Making Deductions

You should deduct pension contributions from your employees' wages on a weekly basis. Some elements of the total pension contribution rate are tax allowable. This means that you should deduct the employee’s pension (including AVCs if applicable) and death-in-service contribution from their gross pay before PAYE is calculated. The remainder of the pension contribution i.e. Sick Pay, Construction Workers' Health Trust and the Benevolent Funds if applicable, should be deducted from their NET PAY.

The amount that should be returned to CWPS for each member is the total amount deducted from the employee together with the total amount payable by the employer.

Making Contributions

In the first week of each month, the administration team will send you a pension payment schedule with the contributions due for the previous month. This schedule can be either posted or emailed to you or alternatively if you use our Online Payment System 'OPS' as your preferred method, your schedule will populate on your site.

It is important to note that the pension payment schedule is an estimate only and it will reflect total contributions due by both employer and employee up to the last Friday of the previous month. All employees of your firm, who are registered with CWPS at the time the schedule is issued, will be listed on this assessment schedule.

Therefore, if the number of weeks on the payment schedule differs from the number of weeks worked by the employee, you should amend the pension payment schedule before returning it to the administration team as the contributions payable will also differ. For example, if any employee is not receiving a PAYE income, neither party have to make a contribution for that period and the amount due to CWPS should be adjusted accordingly.

Please always remember to indicate any unpaid or sick leave on the pension payment schedule.

• You are required under the Pensions Act, 1990 to send contributions to a pension scheme within 21 days of the end of the month to which the contributions apply. For example, contributions due for January must be sent to the Scheme by 21 February.

• You can pay contributions by using our Online Payment System 'OPS' or via Direct Debit (which is available on our downloads page). The Scheme also accepts payments made by cheque, bank draft or Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). Unless you are using our Online Payment method, you must return a copy of the pension payment schedule to CWPS (showing any amendments). This enables us to allocate the pension contributions correctly to each employee's pension account.

• You are required (under the same Act) to give your employees and the Trustee of the relevant pension scheme a monthly statement detailing the contributions you send to the Scheme. A copy of your monthly pension payment schedule returned to the Scheme will suffice for the Trustee.

Important note:

• Failure to remit contribution payments within the time limits set out is a serious omission.
• The Scheme will accept late payment of contributions, but the employer will remain liable for the full amount of any benefits building up or falling due in the period contributions remain unpaid.
• Where contributions due to the Scheme have not been paid within the time set out in the Pensions Act (ie, within 21 days of the end of the month in which they are due), the Trustee may, at its discretion and after consulting with the Scheme Actuary, impose a levy. This would apply to any unpaid contributions for each complete month for which they remain unpaid. This is to compensate members for the loss of investment returns during the period in which the contributions remain unpaid. This is referred to as Rule 4.9 because full details are set out in point 4.9 of the Scheme’s Trust Deed and Rules.