WORKPLACE PENSION SPECIALISTS

AUTO ENROLMENT – YOU NEED TO ACT NOW

Are small businesses heading for a pensions disaster?

Three years after auto enrolment came into effect for Britain’s largest companies, smaller businesses will soon also have to join the system, which requires employers to enrol all their staff in a company pension scheme.*

The larger companies have passed through with very few glitches as most already had pension schemes in place that met the auto enrolment criteria.

Smaller businesses do not share the advantages of the larger counterparts and there are worrying signs that auto enrolment is going to be an unpleasant experience for many of them. One of the biggest problems will be simply finding a pension provider prepared to offer a scheme to all their staff.

As employees now represent a captive market, pension providers are becoming increasingly selective about who they want to accept. One-in-five employers yet to auto enrol have already been warned by their current pension provider that they aren’t guaranteeing access to all.

watch our Auto Enrolment video

Other looming problems include;

– The time required navigating the process. It has been estimated that companies opting to administer the process themselves will need around 103 days of work to get a compliant scheme in place. 63% of companies have also found auto enrolment more difficult than they had anticipated.

– Once your scheme is set up you will still need to provide The Pensions Regulator with regular updates and information, re-assess your workforce every pay reference period, hold records, ongoing communication with employees – it doesn’t all just go away!

This can all seem daunting and complicated – but taking early planning action, engaging with your existing professional advisers, or looking to an outsourced solution – with clear, ongoing communication between what becomes your workplace pensions ‘team’ makes the understanding, implementation and compliance around workplace pensions all that more easier.

Please visit our Auto Enrolment page to find out more about how we can help.

*there are options to opt-out however a pension scheme must still be in place