By Charlotte
Beugge
About
20,000 people who work at sea will be included in the pension auto-enrolment
rules, according to draft legislation produced by the Department for Work and
Pensions.
The rules
mean that maritime workers, fishermen and oil rig workers will be eligible for
automatic workplace pensions under new proposals by the government.
Originally,
according to a report in the Daily Telegraph, seafarers and offshore workers
weren't included in the auto-enrolment scheme because their varying place of
work meant it wasn't clear if they counted as UK workers. They had been left
out of the auto-enrolment rules in the 2008 Pensions Act.
But the
DWP now says that oil riggers, fishermen and other maritime workers will be
covered by the rules as long as they work in UK territorial waters and fulfil
eligibility rules, including determining whether a seafarer would usually work
in the UK and where they pay tax. Where the ship is registered is not relevant.
It means
about 17,000 seafarers and 9,000 offshore workers could be eligible for
pensions, although about 6,000 are expected to opt out.
Under
auto-enrolment, which starts being rolled out this autumn, employees will have
to join a pension scheme to which their employer will also contribute unless
they specifically choose to opt out.
Those
affected will be aged 22 or over, do not already have a work pension, are aged
under state pension age and earn more than £7,475 a year. Auto-enrolment will
not be fully in place across all businesses until October 2018.
Maritime
workers union Nautilus International said it welcomed the inclusion of
seafarers in the auto-enrolment rules, but said that working out eligibility
could be complicated as half of workers on UK ships are not UK nationals.
