Further information DWP press release
The Government also published the consultation ‘Revised implementation proposals for workplace pension reform’ on Friday 23 March – CIPP News item 26 March 2012
FIRST OF MANY EMPLOYER OBLIGATIONS FOR AUTOMATIC ENROLMENT
28 March 2012 Employers with over 250 employees in a PAYE scheme need to assess their workforce on 1 April to find out when their staging date will be. Those of you who are familiar with The Pensions Regulator website will know that they have produced guidance in the form of 7 steps to prepare for automatic enrolment . We would like to highlight a couple of areas from this guidance. The first is within the first step - Knowing your staging date: When to act: Getting ready . As I’m sure you’ve all heard, the first thing an employer should do in preparation for the introduction of the new employer duties is to find out when their staging date is likely to be. It is important that for PAYE schemes with more than 250 employees, you make an assessment of your workforce as at 1 April 2012 as this will determine your staging date. The staging date will be based on the size of the employer’s PAYE scheme on 1 April 2012 and if the number of persons in an employer’s PAYE scheme changes between 1 April 2012 and their staging date, the staging date will not be affected, even if the change is significant. The second area we would like to highlight is the very last section of the 7 step guidance, Safeguarding Individuals . This is because regardless of the size of your PAYE scheme, the law on the new employer duties and safeguards will commence from July 2012, even if your staging date is months and years away. The safeguards are intended to protect individuals, meaning there are certain things the employer must not do, both before a person starts working for them and once that person is a member of a pension scheme with that employer. The safeguards have been put in place to protect entitled workers and jobholders, but the prohibited recruitment safeguard extends this protection to job applicants as well. This particular element of the legislation will come into force for all employers from July 2012, and not from an employer’s staging date. So, if an employer has a staging date of 1 September 2015, they must ensure compliance with the safeguards detailed in TPR guidance from the date the law becomes effective in July 2012. The safeguards include: Stopping active membership of a qualifying scheme Unfair treatment of workers Inducements Prohibited recruitment conduct Follow this link for full details on safeguarding individuals
CIPP BUDGET CONFERENCE AUTOMATIC ENROLMENT DEBATE
4 April 2012 The CIPP hosted its annual Budget Conference in London on 27 March 2012 and as expected one of the hot topics for the day was Automatic Enrolment.
CIPP Policy News Journal
09/10/2012, Page 158 of 234
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