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EUROPEAN EMPLOYERS EXEMPT FROM AUTO ENROLLING DUAL STATUS WORKERS
12 June 2012
Approximately 9,000 workers who are subject to labour laws in both the UK and another European country are to be exempted from the auto-enrolment process.
In February 2012, the DWP published a consultation Workplace Pension Reform – Automatic Enrolment and European Employers , together with draft regulations and a supporting Impact Assessment. The consultation sought views and evidence on proposals to exempt European employers from automatically enrolling ’dual-status’ workers – individuals who are both jobholders as defined in section 1 of the Pensions Act 2008 and qualifying persons as defined in regulation 3 of the Occupational Pension Schemes (Cross-border Activities) Regulations 2005 (SI 2005/3381). A small number of individuals will have ’dual-status’. The Impact Assessment sets out the available evidence, concluding that around 9,000 individuals could be ’dual-status’ workers not currently saving in a qualifying pension scheme. This overlap means that while an employer has a duty to automatically enrol the jobholder, there are consequences for any occupational pension scheme that wanted to accept them as a member. As a result, when automatic enrolment starts, an employer may find it difficult to comply with the new duty for `dual-status’ workers, as there may be no pension scheme willing or able to provide a workplace pension for such workers. The employer could therefore be in breach of the duty without any practical means of remedying the situation. The consultation proposed exercising the power in section 292A of the Pensions Act 2004 (inserted by section 18 of the Pensions Act 2011) to provide for regulations to be made to exempt European employers from automatically enrolling ‘dual-status’ workers. The majority of respondents expressed support for the proposal and saw the exemption as a welcome deregulatory measure. Many respondents believed there should be certainty for employers and that employers should not be put in a position where they could not comply with the employers’ duty. The DWP said in their consultation response that some minor technical changes have been made to the draft regulation. However, the main provisions have not been amended and the regulations were laid before Parliament on 11 June to come into force on 2 July 2012.
SUPPORT FOR GOOD WORK-BASED DC PENSION PROVISION
20 June 2012
The Pensions Regulator has published material to help product providers, trustees and employers deliver good outcomes for retirement savers from work-based defined contribution (DC) pensions. For product providers and trustees, the regulator has published a statement ‘Enabling a good member outcome in DC pensions’ which: provides an update on the ongoing industry dialogue
CIPP Policy News Journal
12/04/2013, Page 234 of 362
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