EAC/ELC Premium cannot be blank

When uploading contributions to The People’s Pension, you may see the error:

EAC/ELC Premium cannot be blank

This error usually means that the EAC/ELC Premium field in your contribution file is blank, but The People’s Pension is expecting a value for that worker group.

What is the EAC/ELC Premium field?

In The People’s Pension file specification, the EAC/ELC Premium (field G2) relates to the B&CE Employee Accident Cover / Employee Life Cover (EAC/ELC) product.

According to the specification:

• The EAC/ELC Premium is only mandatory if your employer has an active B&CE Employee Accident Cover / Employee Life Cover product.
• When it is required, the premium:
  • must be entered as a number,
  • can include up to 2 decimal places, and
  • must match a valid premium for the worker group.

The key point is:

EAC/ELC Premium is not normally required unless your employer has B&CE Employee Accident Cover or Employee Life Cover.

The People’s Pension only treats it as mandatory once that product is attached to the employer or worker group in their system.

Why am I seeing the error?

You will generally see:

“EAC/ELC Premium cannot be blank”

when The People’s Pension is expecting an EAC/ELC premium for the worker group included in your file.

This can happen if:

• The worker group is set up in The People’s Pension as having EAC/ELC cover, but
• The corresponding EAC/ELC Premium is not being provided in the upload file.

If you do not have Employee Accident Cover / Employee Life Cover at all, the error often indicates a worker group setup issue – either in BrightPay or on The People’s Pension portal.

Fixing the error in BrightPay Cloud

If you are using BrightPay Cloud, the quickest way to investigate is to check the pension scheme and worker group setup, rather than editing the CSV file manually.

Steps to check

1. Open the relevant employer in BrightPay Cloud.
2. Go to Pensions.
3. Select The People’s Pension scheme.
4. Locate the worker group assigned to the affected employee(s).
5. Check that the worker group in BrightPay matches the worker group configuration in your The People’s Pension employer portal:
   • Name/identifier
   • Whether EAC/ELC cover is attached to that worker group
6. Once you have confirmed or corrected the setup, re-run the pension submission/validation from BrightPay Cloud.

If The People’s Pension expects an EAC/ELC premium for that worker group, you will need to ensure that:

• The worker group is correctly configured, and
• The required premium value is being supplied in line with their specification.

If you don’t have EAC/ELC cover

If your organisation does not have B&CE Employee Accident Cover or Employee Life Cover:

• Confirm in The People’s Pension employer portal that no worker groups have EAC/ELC attached incorrectly.
• Ensure the worker group selected in BrightPay matches the correct worker group on The People’s Pension (i.e. one without EAC/ELC cover if you do not use that product).
• Correct any discrepancies and re-submit.

In most cases, resolving the mismatch between the worker group setup in BrightPay and on The People’s Pension will clear the “EAC/ELC Premium cannot be blank” error.