Benefits Guru Auto Enrolment Ratings 2026

Auto-enrolment stopped being news a long time ago, which is exactly why it repays a closer look. The duties recur every time someone joins, leaves or crosses an earnings threshold, and the difference between providers shows up in how much of that work lands on the employer’s desk. The 2026 Auto Enrolment Ratings assess nine areas of a provider’s proposition, from the secondary market through to the platform the scheme runs on.

Royal London achieved a Gold award, scoring exceptionally well in eight of those nine: Auto-Enrolment Governance, Data Ownership & Protection, Managing your Employer Duties, Member Categorisation & Reporting, Platform Infrastructure, Premium Collection, Proposition Design & Preparation Service, and Secondary Auto-Enrolment Market. The ninth, Auto-Enrolment System Capabilities, was rated very good, earning Silver.

Two things recur across the nine. Royal London tends to take work on rather than hand the employer a tool and leave them to it, and several things that can carry a fee, such as the communications that go with a transferred-in scheme or returning a client’s data when they leave, are provided at no additional cost. Each rated area is covered below.

Secondary Auto-Enrolment Market:

Most auto-enrolment schemes being placed today are not new ones. They are existing arrangements being moved, which makes the secondary market the part of this rating most likely to matter to an adviser reviewing what a client already has. Royal London is active in the secondary auto-enrolment market, with processes in place to assist with scheme data and dedicated implementation managers to run the move.

Royal London will also produce all the relevant employer and employee communications at no additional cost, and the migration process typically takes under 30 days to complete.

Premium Collection:

Contribution collection is where auto-enrolment errors tend to surface first, and usually at the least convenient moment. Royal London’s process is automated and integrates with HR and payroll systems, calculating contribution levels and refunds rather than leaving that to the employer.

DDI payment standards are applied, and the system notifies the employer if too little contribution has been paid for the previous pay period, so a shortfall is flagged rather than quietly accumulating.

Proposition Design & Preparation Service:

Scheme design is the point where an adviser adds the most value and needs the most information to do it. Royal London can provide reports for advisers and employers setting out the requirements for automatic enrolment compliance.

The system supports advisers through the scheme design process, modelling different costs and opt-in and opt-out rates, so the shape of a scheme can be tested before anyone commits to it.

Auto-Enrolment Governance:

Governance is what separates a scheme that is compliant from one that can demonstrate it. Royal London has a very strong auto-enrolment governance process, able to undertake data validations and automatically track data errors.

The audit process is detailed, covering assessment and categorisation, payroll updates, communications, and scheme set-up and project management.

Auto-Enrolment System Capabilities:

This is the one area of the nine where Royal London did not score exceptionally. The capability itself is sound: bulk uploads of data from multiple sources, which can then be used to pre-populate joining processes.

An online dashboard is available for advisers and employers to carry out their duties.

Member Categorisation & Reporting:

Worker categorisation is the mechanical heart of auto-enrolment, and the part employers most often get wrong. The Royal London proposition can assist in identifying all categories of workers and can assess scheme eligibility criteria against The Pensions Regulator’s rules.

It produces all the relevant member management information, and data can be taken from HR and payroll systems via CSV file.

Managing your Employer Duties:

For most employers, auto-enrolment is a set of obligations they did not ask for and have no time to learn. Royal London offers a full service to assist the employer in managing all employer duties, covering guidance on new legislation, converting existing schemes into qualifying schemes, joining, opt-outs, and providing all the relevant communications.

The support behind it is staffed rather than purely digital, with a dedicated onboarding team, face-to-face support and a helpdesk. Royal London can also alert employers when they are not meeting their employer duties, which turns compliance from something an employer has to remember into something they are told about.

Data Ownership & Protection:

Data ownership matters most at the point an employer wants to leave, which is usually when it gets discovered. All data held by Royal London is owned by the client, and should an employer want to transfer their scheme, Royal London will provide all the accumulated data at no additional cost.

Royal London has strong data protection processes in place and uses computer testing to regularly assess individuals. All data is processed in line with GDPR.

Platform Infrastructure:

The platform is the part of the proposition an employer actually sees. The Royal London platform front end can be customised to suit the employer’s own branding and operates as software as a service.

Regardless of scheme size, Royal London provides ongoing support covering governance, regular reviews, a dedicated account manager and a member helpline.

The full 2026 Auto Enrolment Ratings tables and individual provider factsheets are available at benefitsguru.co.uk/ratings.

Royal London’s workplace pension performance is analysed separately in What Royal London’s Gold Award Tells Advisers About the Proposition.