Increase in Automatic Enrolment fines for non compliance.

Automatic Enrolment will soon be hitting all small businesses across the UK.  By 2018, even if you just employ one person, you will need to comply with the legislation surrounding this pension reform.  Many small businesses are being asked to prepare and be aware of their duties, as avoiding Automatic Enrolment can be costly. How much Automatic Enrolment can cost for non compliance have been shown by the latest figures released by The Pensions Regulator.

The figures for the quarter 1st July to 30th September 2016 shows there has been a huge rise in the number of notices and penalties issued to employers for non-compliance with Automatic Enrolment.  The statistics of this quarter are shown below.

·         15,073 compliance notices have been sent out to employers, this is an increase of over 344% from the last quarter where only 3,392 were issued.

·         3,728 fixed penalty notices of £400 have been issued, which is an increase of over 332% on last quarter, where only 861 were sent.

·         576 escalating penalty notices have also been sent.

An escalating penalty is where previous compliance notices have been ignored so The Pensions Regulator acts.  They are dependent upon the size of the employer and can carry a daily fine ranging between £50 and £10,000 per day.

An increase of small employers staging throughout 2017, who are complying with these duties  has shown a dramatic increase in compliance fines sent out by the TPR.  The demands to comply with the legal requirement set by Automatic Enrolment has shown to been difficult, with most employers stating that, illness, being short staffed and confusion about their duties have been the main cause for this.

The Pensions Regulator have stated that explanations given by employers such as these, are not a 'reasonable excuse'. 

Automatic Enrolment was introduced in 2012 and The Pensions Regulator have made it clear from the start that it is the law, and employers must comply with these duties.  Since this date the number of penalties that have been sent out are the following.

• 741 escalating penalty notices

• 26,040 compliance notices

• 6,779 fixed penalty notices.

We are here to help.  We know that Automatic Enrolment can be confusing to employers.  Therefore, we are now including our Automatic Enrolment solutions as part of our payroll services process

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This means there is no extra cost for us to take on these duties for you. We will send out the communication to your employees, continue with ongoing processing, and even communicate to third parties, such as The Pensions Regulator and pension providers.

Don’t become one of these statistics, let us help you today.