Employers’ automatic enrolment duties include increasing the amounts they and their staff pay into the pension over a number of years. This is known as 'phasing'.
The date the minimum contributions were due to be increased has changed in order to align with the tax year. So now, instead of contributions increasing from 2% to 5% in October 2017, and from 5% to 8% in October 2018, they will now rise from 5 April 2018 and 2019. Despite what some press articles may have implied, this is not a delay to automatic enrolment, and employers' staging dates will remain the same.
Aligning the contribution increases with the tax year will reduce the amount of admin required. It should also help individuals who are used to seeing changes in their take home pay when the tax year changes.