10 May 2016
If you are a business with employees it is important that you do not miss your auto enrolment staging date. According to one of the leading providers research by NOW Pensions, shows that 1 in 5 businesses are completing their auto-enrolment applications after their staging date has passed. As more and more businesses enrol the Pensions Regulator is very likely to take a tougher stance on the penalties that can be enforced.
According to the statistics gathered of the firms that registered with the workplace pensions provider, 40% completed their application either close to their staging date or after the deadline.
The figures show that:
If an Employer fails to comply with their work place pension duties under auto-enrolment they will receive a 28 day warning notice. A fixed penalty of £400 will be issued if this notice is ignored.
For continued non-compliance by an Employer, a rolling daily penalty based on the number of employees will be applied. Currently those with 1 to 5 employees can be fined £50 a day, while those with between 5 to 49 employees can be fined £500 a day.
It appears that the TV campaign that indicates that Employers are not taking their responsibilities seriously is in fact coming true within the business environment especially within the smaller business many of whom will stage in the current year. Perhaps the Government should be promoting a harder hitting campaign rather than using something that looks like an extra from the kids film “Monsters Inc”.
Don’t be like an ostrich and bury your head in the sand as this is here to stay.
Whilst we are not able to provide financial advice in respect of the implementation of a workplace pension scheme we can recommend you to a firm that will be able to assist with any questions that you may have.