The Pensions Regulator urges businesses to learn their staging date
The Pension Regulator has recently published its latest automatic enrolment summary, containing their findings from surveying SME employers (50 – 60 workers), small employers (5-49 workers) and micro employers (1 – 4 workers).
The survey has shown an increased understanding of automatic enrolment amongst all groups but there are still concerns that many businesses (20% of small employers and almost 50% of micro employers) do not yet know their staging dates.
One in 10 businesses due to stage between October 2014 and April 2015 have still not commenced preparation to meet their automatic enrolment duties despite recommendations to start preparing at least 12 months in advance. This leaves a significant amount of businesses at a big risk of not being able to meet their staging date.
The survey also showed that a significant proportion of companies (37% of small companies and 51% of micro businesses) do not yet understand the five key features of pension reform, namely:
- That they will have to automatically enrol relevant workers
- They must provide a compliant pension scheme
- They have to contribute at a minimum level to workers pensions
- They will need to complete a declaration of compliance
- They will need to communicate to workers on an individual basis
Are you aware of your responsibilities as an employer? Join a 20 minute free IRIS webinar to start on the journey to auto enrolment compliance.
Are you one of the 10% of businesses staging before April 2015 who hasn’t yet started to prepare? Speak to an IRIS advisor on 0344 815 5700 about how we can help.
