Pension Auto Enrolment (AE) ‘My Future Fund’ – Commencement Fast Approaching

Amidst an ever-changing regulatory landscape, and increased costs of doing business, payroll and pensions are a growing area of risk and complexity for businesses and uncertainty about their long-term labour costs.

The introduction of pensions auto-enrolment (AE) from 1^st January 2026 called ‘My Future Fund’ is now looming fast.

Government launched a major national awareness campaign in July, and it has recently been reported that AE instructions will be issued in early December in advance of pension auto-enrolment commencing in January 2026. It is estimated that an additional 750,000 workers will then have access to the state quality assured retirement savings scheme who are not currently part of a workplace or private pension plan.

In terms of assessing eligibility, the National Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings Authority (NAERSA), the new agency set up to manage the auto-enrolment rollout, will assess employee eligibility using a 13-week lookback period to determine and calculate initial payroll deductions from 1^st January 2026. The Department of Social Protection has confirmed its plan to issue the first AE Payroll Notifications (APN) in early December 2025, allowing time to integrate with payroll systems ahead of January 2026.

The Fund is to be administered by NAERSA. It will handle the bulk of the administration of the scheme by determining eligibility and enrolling eligible employees.  It will also collect all employee, employer and State contributions, and invest the money on participants’ behalf.

To assist clients in understanding the Auto Enrolment system and what needs to be done in advance of its commencement, the Stratis FAQs on ‘My Future Fund’ are available by emailing any of our Partners or brendan.mcginty@stratis.ie

Brendan McGinty

Managing Partner