Over 1,300 businesses fined by The Pensions Regulator

The recent figures that have been released by The Pensions Regulator (TPR) show that 1,319 businesses have either been fined or received compliance notices for failure to comply with the auto enrolment legislation.

166 businesses were issued fixed penalty notices of £400 for "failure to comply with statutory notice or some specific employer duties" which is a significant increase from 3 businesses, from the last quarter. Fortunately, there were no escalated penalties of between £50 and £10,000 per day (dependant on the size of the business) for further failure to comply with statutory notices.

This shows that the proactive action undertaken by TPR is having an effect on businesses. TPR state that they "have issued a significant number of compliance notices in the quarter to employers that have failed to complete an automatic enrolment declaration of compliance within five months of their staging date." The figures show that 1,139 compliance notices were sent out in the last quarter.

One of the explanations that they received from an employer that failed to comply (and was subsequently issued a £400 penalty notice) was that they had mistakenly believed that they had fully completed the online declaration of compliance and forgot to track their progress. The enforcement from TPR then lead to the employer to provide the correct information about how they had complied with their duties.

The emphasis in the remainder of the report from TPR is in regards to how businesses should prepare early for auto enrolment. TPR research shows that the majority of employers who have completed the process regret not allowing more time. To begin your detailed plan, visit TPR's planner.

The IRIS AE Suite™ streamlines your payroll process by assessing, auto enrolling and then publishing communications to your employees. Find out more about the IRIS AE Suite™ and how it can help you comply:

IRIS AE Suite™

Book a free demonstration