Policy News Journal - 2011-2012

Material to go live later this year: · Interactive tools – these online tools have been designed specifically to help smaller employers without previous engagement with pensions to understand the new duties. This will include a tool enabling employers to look up their indicative staging date by inputting their PAYE reference, as well as a tool to calculate pension contributions. · Trustee checklist – aimed at trustees of existing schemes, this will set out some of the issues that should be taken into account when existing pension schemes are considered for automatic enrolment. Read the full press release from The Pensions Regulator 25 May 2011 The Pensions Regulator has said it will run some form of hardship policy for employers who cannot afford to comply with employer duties. Professional Pensions reports: Speaking at a press briefing yesterday on helping employers with automatic enrolment, TPR executive director for employer compliance Charles Counsell, said the watchdog would make provision for employers who struggle to meet the requirements. However, Counsell warned TPR would need to take care that individual claims were true and employers were not just getting out of their duties. He added the aim was to build a pro-compliance culture through educating employers to fulfil their duties and the drive was designed to funnel people into ensuring they comply. "We are confident we will get the vast number enrolling," Counsell said. But, TPR said it will have the power to impose a fixed fine of £400 if firms persistently fail to comply with employer duties and will be able to "go beyond that" depending on the breach. Counsell said the regulator has access to PAYE information from HMRC which allows it to know who all employers are and whether they are taking action. In addition, Counsell said the guidance TPR recently issued for employers will be updated over the course of the year as the legislation and regulation gets finalised following Royal Assent. 15 June 2011 The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has published a checklist that provides trustees with an overview of what they might need to do to ensure their scheme is ready to be used for automatic enrolment. From next year, the UK's largest employers will have to enrol all eligible jobholders into a pension scheme, with medium and small employers following in 2013 and beyond. Eventually, automatic enrolment will affect all UK employers. Whilst the new duties predominately apply to employers, trustees will have a role to play. The checklist for trustees follows the regulator's educational materials aimed at larger employers and their advisers, which includes detailed guidance, a five-page summary of the new duties and an action checklist. THE PENSIONS REGULATOR HARDSHIP POLICY TPR CHECKLIST FOR TRUSTEES

CIPP Policy News Journal

09/10/2012, Page 143 of 234

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