Given the employer population and staging profile, the full impact of automatic enrolment is still to be felt in terms of overall access to workplace pension provision in Great Britain
The findings from the Employers' pension provision survey will be used to inform the evaluation of the workplace pension reforms and ongoing development of automatic enrolment policy.
Six million workers now automatically enrolled 14 March 2016
More than 100,000 employers have enrolled over six million workers into a pension scheme.
More than six million workers have now begun saving into a workplace pension as a result of automatic enrolment.
This month’s automatic enrolment declaration of compliance report also shows that more than 100,000 employers have now automatically enrolled staff into a workplace pension. Along with the country’s largest employers, thousands of small employers and micro employers from scaffolding firms to children’s nurseries, hauliers to farmers, charities to car dealerships and people who employ a personal care assistant are now starting to pay into workplace pensions for their staff.
The top three questions that The Pensions Regulator has received from employers this month are:
When do my staff need to be re-enrolled?
Where can I find my letter code?
I’m a new business – when will I stage?
Did you know you can use your usual Government Gateway login to declare compliance on behalf of multiple clients?
Automatic enrolment: miscellaneous technical changes to provide easements for employers 16 March 2016
The Government has published their response to the consultation on draft regulations to simplify automatic enrolment processes and reduce burdens on employers.
There were 25 formal written responses, the CIPP being one of them; thank you to those members who took the time to respond to our survey. Respondents were broadly supportive of the aims of the regulations, agreeing that they would reduce burdens on employers.
The Occupational and Personal Pension Schemes (Automatic Enrolment) (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2016 were laid before Parliament on 10 March and come into effect on 6 April 2016.
A summary of the changes is detailed below:
Exceptions to the employer duty From 1 April 2015 exceptions to the employer duty for certain individuals was introduced. Company directors; and genuine partners in Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs) are to be included in this exception as automatic enrolment may not be appropriate. Tax Protected Status Lifetime Allowance for pension contributions will be reduced from £1.25million to £1million with effect from 6 April 2016. Transitional protection for individuals who think they will be affected by the change will be introduced alongside this reduction to ensure that individuals are protected from potentially retrospective tax charges arising from the reduction. The Government’s intention was to amend legislation to provide the discretion for employers under automatic enrolment legislation to be exempt from the duties in relation to anyone with the new tax protected status from 6 April 2016. It has, however, not proved possible to add the necessary provision to the Finance Act 2016, which would have allowed the revised provisions to be backdated to 6 April 2016, therefore the intention is to introduce regulations at the earliest opportunity but this cannot be done before the Finance Act 2016 becomes law.
CIPP Policy News Journal
25/04/2016, Page 346 of 453
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker