Approximately 30,000 medium sized employers, (those with approx 62 - 149 workers), who staged in April-July had reached their deadline to complete their declaration of compliance by the start of December 2014. A total of 166 Fixed Penalty Notices (£400 fines) were issued in the last three months of the year. The number of compliance notices issued also rose with 1,139 notices issued. These notices instruct an employer to remedy a contravention of one or more of their employer duties or risk a fine or further action from the regulator. A significant number of the notices issued in this period were to employers who had missed their deadline to submit their declaration. “My message to all employers is that failing to declare within five months of your staging date means you risk being fined, which is why we recommend you start your automatic enrolment planning and preparation 12 months before staging. It appears some medium employers waited for a prompt from the regulator before completing their automatic enrolment duties. Employers must complete all their duties including making their declaration of compliance to The Pensions Regulator. With the mass market roll out of automatic enrolment to large numbers of small businesses in the coming months, we expect to see an increase in how often we need to use our powers. The Pensions Regulator’s Director of automatic enrolment, Charles Counsell, said,
The vast majority of employers complete their duties on or ahead of time, but we are seeing a small minority that require the additional nudge of a notice from The Pensions Regulator.”
The regulator’s own research shows that the majority of employers who have completed the automatic enrolment process regret not allowing more time.
Experience to date also shows that employers should begin gathering the information they need to complete their declaration of compliance well in advance of their deadline.
There is a checklist for employers and their advisers to help them be ready to supply all the information the regulator needs on its website.
As well as highlighting compliance issues caused by employers failing to allow enough time to complete their automatic enrolment duties, the latest compliance and enforcement bulletin details how the effective use of the regulator’s powers directly assists in ensuring workers receive the pensions they are due in law.
You can view the bulletin within TPR's research and analysis section on their website.
Read the full press release .
Automatic enrolment thresholds 2015-16
30 January 2015
The proposed 2015-16 automatic enrolment thresholds have been published in an Order and laid before Parliament.
The 2015-16 automatic enrolment thresholds have been published in The Automatic Enrolment (Earnings Trigger and Qualifying Earnings Band) Order 2015 by the Department for Work and Pensions and laid before Parliament. The Order is subject to Parliamentary approval and we will republish details when it has been approved.
CIPP Policy News Journal
08/04/2015, Page 357 of 521
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