AUTOMATIC ENROLMENT When the roll-out of automatic enrolment began back in 2012 it brought with it additional administrative burdens for employers. However, with all employers now automatically enrolling their workers into a pension scheme, and the phased increase of contributions complete, automatic enrolment is now considered to be business as usual. This research set out to understand whether automatic enrolment, now considered to be business as usual, continues to bring additional burden. Impact of the minimum contribution increase More than a third of respondents (37%) stated that they had members asking to leave the pension scheme following the increase to minimum contributions. The increase also brought additional work for 54% of respondents required to intervene to amend the contribution rates. Almost two thirds (60%) issued communications to their employees advising of the changes.
Impact of contribution increase
Recommendations in the DWP report - Automatic Enrolment Review 2017: Maintaining the Momentum In December 2017 the DWP published a report called Automatic Enrolment Review 2017: Maintaining the Momentum, which discussed a range of possible options for increasing pension savings in the future. One of those options was to lower the age threshold from 22 to 18, respondents were asked for their views on the impact this would have on both employers and employees.
A vast range of comments and opinions were provided by respondents, with the following being a representative sample:
We have mostly an older workforce so there would be minimal impact for us. I do think that businesses would welcome the change as this would make it easier when trying to work out if employees are eligible. From a process point of view it makes no difference. Obviously, increased employer contributions will have a significant impact. Increase cost to employers reducing profit. We would need to inform all current non eligible workers if implemented and update payroll software. I think this would be beneficial for staff as the sooner they start paying into a scheme, the quicker they get used to it. Generally we don't have that many under 22’s working for us so the impact would be minimal, but it is a good idea to reduce the age threshold
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CIPP POLICY AND RESEARCH TEAM PAYSLIP STATISTICS COMPARISON
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