It will soon be time for small and medium sized businesses to auto enrol workers into a pension scheme – It is important that businesses start planning for this sooner rather than later to avoid delays and penalties.
What is Auto Enrolment?
It is a new legal duty you need to follow as a business to automatically enrol eligible jobholders into a qualifying pension scheme.
Does it apply to my business?
If you employ or pay workers then the answer is more than likely Yes.
What is a Staging Date?
This is the date on which these new laws will apply to your business.
What is a Qualifying Pension Scheme? Will my stakeholder plan suffice?
A Qualifying Scheme is one which is approved by the pension’s regulator to meet auto enrolment requirements. To find out if your current scheme will qualify you need to contact your financial
advisor.
My Staging Date is in 2017. Do I need to do anything now?
The majority of businesses fall into the category who must enrol in 2017. It can take a while to choose and set up a scheme and there will be lots of businesses trying to do this at the same time. If you miss your staging deadline the penalty regime is severe.
We recommend that you start planning at least 6 months before the staging date to avoid unnecessary delays.
If you haven’t done so already, you now need to register with The Pensions Regulator to nominate a contact for receiving reminder emails and also to find out your Staging Date. You can do this via the link below.
http://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/automatic-enrolment.aspx
If you have any queries about Auto Enrolment please give us a call.
