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Auto-Enrolment Pensions can not be ignored!

20 November 2015

Auto-enrolment Pensions or Work-Based Pensions is becoming a reality for more and more Employers each month.   The largest ones have been operating under Auto-Enrolment for over a year and in the majority of cases quite successfully.  SME’s are the targets for the next 18 months and 2016 will see a massive increase in the numbers of Employers whose Auto-Enrolment staging dates will become live.  Whilst initially the estimated planning time was 12 months after recent research in reality for smaller employers it will be significantly less and schemes can be arranged within a 3 month window.   The downside will be that with so many more Employers staging in the next 12 months that demand and supply is more likely to be the issue than the time to get the processes in place.

There are many misunderstandings in respect of Auto-Enrolment Pensions and in particular the top 3 are as follows:

  1. I already have a company pension scheme in place so I do not need to do anything – FALSE
  2. None of my employees are eligible so I don’t need to do anything more – FALSE
  3. All of my employees have opted out so that’s it I won’t need to do anything else – FALSE

If you believed that any of the answers above were TRUE it is important that you obtain advice and do your research into Auto-Enrolment now.

As you are providing pension income for your Employees in the future it is really important that as a business you seek professional advice in terms of your responsibility under Auto-Enrolment.  Selecting a pension product is a huge responsibility for the Employer and any decision should not be made lightly in this respect.   We recommend that as a first point of call you talk to your Accountant or Independent Financial Advisor as soon as possible to allow you to be able to adequately plan ahead.

If you require further advice in respect of this matter please contact us and we can provide you with details of someone that you can talk to.