Swindon News Now – Swindon Town FC Fined £22,000

BLOG | Swindon Town FC, playing in League One of England's football league pyramid, have been fined over £22,000 after 'repeated' workplace pension failures

The Case of Swindon Town FC

Swindon Town FC, currently playing their football in League One, are the latest big-name casualty of the workplace pensions reform. Due to ‘repeated failures’ in their preparations for auto enrolment, a non-compliance fine was received by the club for £22,900.

The Pensions Regulator state that the football club failed to place its eligible staff members into a pension scheme from their staging date, pay contributions towards the pensions, or even write to staff to inform them about how the legislation would affect them. They also did not complete and return their Declaration of Compliance document back to the regulator as required by law within five months of staging.

The fine can be broken down as such:

- £400 initial non-compliance on-the-spot fine

- £2500 daily non-compliance fine, accrued over nine days

- Total penalty of £22,900 for failure to comply

What’s Next?

The Pensions Regulator do make clear that they prefer to avoid situations similar to this, and encourage businesses who believe they may be in danger of missing their staging deadline to come forward and speak with them.

The case brings back memories of Dunelm, the large furnishings company who’s date for pension reform staging was April 1st 2013. Ultimately, with insufficient preparation and a lack of communication with The Pensions Regulator, Dunelm faced a £143,000 bill through fines and owed pension contribution payments. Both cases stand as a testament to the importance of compliance; remember to prepare early to give your business enough time to correct anything which may go wrong.

How IRIS Can Help your Business

If your business is staging for automatic pension enrolment in 2016, and you’d like to avoid a similar situation of compliance failure like Swindon Town, download our latest free guide, “The 4 things to know if you’re staging in 2016”.

This 13-page paper looks into the four key things your business should know if you’re due to reach your staging date for enrolment during 2016.

Download my free guide