A number of weeks ago I ‘blogged’ about auto enrolment but a couple of things lead me to believe that there are businesses owners out there that are either ignorant of their up and coming responsilities, or think it won’t affect them or worse of all are trying to avoid being affected.
Well LISTEN UP this legislation affects every single business with employees!
I was at a networking meeting last week (don’t yawn it was actually brilliant being targeted at women in business and the initiative of Dumfries Business Gateway) and asked many of those present if they had heard of auto enrolment. A blank face was the main response with the best being ‘oh yes but I don’t know what it’s about’.
Then on Sunday there was a headline in my paper which read ‘First employers fined for failing to auto-enrol staff’.
So do I now have your attention? If so read on.
The law on workplace pensions has changed and if you are an employer you are
legally required to automatically enrol staff into a pension and make contributions.
You need to know when you need to be ready, your ‘staging date’ which you can find on www.tpr.gov.uk/staging date
You need to nominate someone to receive emails from the Pension Regulator, see www.tpr.gov.uk/nominate-contact
You must start making plans at least a year prior to your ‘staging date. Create a plan at www.tpr.gov.uk/planner and consider what your contributions may be at www.tpr.gov.uk/calculate
You have to know which of your staff must be automatically enrolled. Evaluate this at www.tpr.gov/uk/evaluate
Considering your payroll software is a priority, does it support automatic enrolment? Help with software can be found at www.tpr.gov.uk/software
Talk to your financial adviser/pension adviser about a suitable scheme or visit www.tpr.gov.uk/scheme
Once you reach your staging date and have enrolled the staff requiring automatic enrolment make sure your pay the contributions by the deadlines your provider has given you.
By the way don’t forget to have that all important meeting with your staff to discuss their options. Seems obvious but with everything else you need to do it would be so easy to overlook this.
All of the above and more can be found on the Pension Regulator’s website at www.the pensionregulator.gov.uk
Ignore this at your peril and cost!
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