For some time now many pension experts have warned that smaller employers may find it hard to comply with complex Automatic Enrolment legislation.
However, new figures seem to indicate that these fears may be unfounded.
The Pensions Regulator’s latest compliance and enforcement bulletin, shows that 90% of the 12,000 small and micro employers, who have reached their staging date, the deadline for compliance with the new rules, in the summer of 2015, have successfully complied.
Automatic Enrolment non-compliance
Despite the encouraging figures, the Pensions Regulator also revealed that some employers are still failing to comply with the new rules.
The latest bulletin showed that:
- Between October and December 2015, 2,596 compliance notices were issued by the Pensions Regulato
- This represents over half of all such notices ever sent
- Nearly 1,600 £400 fixed penalty notices have now been issued to employers
The regulator once again warned employers to allow plenty of time to comply with the new rules. The majority of compliance notices were issued to employers who had failed to allocate sufficient time and resources to Automatic Enrolment.
Although the figures showing 90% of small and micro employers are complying with the rules are encouraging, it is clear that the number of compliance notices are also rising, potentially pointing to future problems.
Interestingly, the Pensions Regulator also warned that employers who use advisers to help meet their obligations, should take care to ensure they know what tasks the adviser will and wont complete. It seems there have been a number of occasions where it wasn’t clear whether the adviser or employer were due to complete the declaration of compliance.
Commenting on the figures, Pensions Minister, Ros Altmann said:
“The latest figures highlight the on-going success of Automatic Enrolment. It is really encouraging to see that so far, the vast majority of small and micro employers have set up a workplace pension for their staff and are helping them on their way to a more financially secure retirement. From now on, the smallest employers will start to meet their obligations and we must ensure they know what to do and have help if they need it.”
“So far 5.8 million people have been automatically enrolled into a workplace pension. Thanks to automatic enrolment workplace pensions are becoming the norm and we expect 9 million people to be newly saving or saving more.”
Are you due to comply soon?
If you run a small or micro business and have not yet reached your staging date we are here to help.
Complying with the rules can be complex and time consuming, however, we are here to help.
Call Bev or Sarah on 0115 933 8433 for an initial, no obligation, chat about your circumstances.
