Policy News Journal - 2012-13

participating in NEST. In addition, over 100 large employers have told us they intend to use NEST to help them meet their automatic enrolment duties. Most of these employers are using NEST alongside another pension scheme. A few examples of employers we are working with are below.

 BBC  BT  Capita Resourcing Ltd  Compass Group UK & Ireland  Gondola Group  The JSA Group  McDonald's Restaurants Ltd  The Rank Group Plc  Travelodge

Steve Webb, Minister for Pensions, said:

‘I am delighted to see major household names among the broad and diverse group of employers choosing NEST, which is one of the schemes employers should consider when they decide how to meet the new duties. ‘NEST has been specially created to make it easy for employers who are not used to dealing with pensions, and want to enrol their workers into a good quality, low cost pension scheme without any fuss.’

ADAPTING FLEXIBLE BENEFIT SCHEMES FOR AUTOMATIC ENROLMENT

14 November 2012

According to a pensions expert employers with flexible benefit schemes that are getting ready to send information about renewals to their employees, must make sure that they provide information about pensions automatic enrolment. Pensions expert Mark Baker of Pinsent Masons, said that employees on flexible schemes who opted for a lower pensions contribution as part of their annual renewal could end up with higher total pay following automatic enrolment due to the strict contribution levels that would then be in place. With 1 January the most popular date for flex renewals, companies issuing communications to their employees over the next few weeks need to "act fast". "It's essential to make sure that the flex communications mention auto-enrolment, even if your staging date isn't until much later in 2013," he said. "The risk otherwise is that employees will flex their pension contributions down, find themselves auto-enrolled when the company reaches its staging date [the date is when auto-enrolment first applies to a particular employer] and end up with higher total pay as a result. The wording in the flex communications doesn't have to be complicated, but companies that haven't covered this do need to act fast."