How can I hold on to contributions during a worker's opt-out period?

You can hold on to a worker’s contribution during their opt out period, instead of paying it to NEST. If you decide to hold on to contributions, you’ll need to deduct them from the worker’s pay but you won’t need to include the pay in any contribution schedule until the worker’s opt-out period has ended.

You can hold on to contributions until the end of the second calendar month after the worker’s start date. You can only do this if you’ve enrolled the worker on their start date.

It’s legally possible to hold on to these contributions for longer but NEST doesn’t support this extended deadline. If you make contributions online and you’d like to hold on to contributions, you don’t need to add any information to the worker’s record and leave their status as Action needed – Not yet validated.

If you make contributions by file upload or by secure file transfer protocol (SFTP) and you want to hold on to contributions for a worker, you don’t need to include a record for that worker in your file at all.

It’s possible that you’ll hold on to contributions for more than one earnings period. For a weekly payment frequency you may be holding on to several weeks of contributions. If the worker doesn’t opt out, you’ll need to remember to pay all contributions you’ve held on to for these workers after their opt-out period ends.

Any contributions deducted outside the opt-out period need to be paid in the relevant schedule by the usual due date.