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Businesses still running the risk of not being fully prepared for Auto Enrolment

Home / News / Businesses still running the risk of not being fully prepared for Auto Enrolment

Businesses still running the risk of not being fully prepared for Auto Enrolment

Lifetime news

Posted on: 18/02/2015

Small and medium-sized businesses are running the risk of not being fully ready for their Auto Enrolment staging date.

That is because they are putting off their preparations until after May’s general election, according to some pensions experts.

This year, 50,000 companies are due to auto enrol their employees into a pension scheme, while a further 500,000 must do so in 2016.

SMEs  face a fixed penalty of £400 if they fail to comply with the legislation, with the potential of incurring additional escalating fines.

Indee, in the last three months of 2014, 166 businesses were fined for non-compliance, according to figures from the Pensions Regulator.

“The number of companies staging in the latter half of this year after the general election is far higher than at the start of 2015, so early preparation is crucial,” said Silk.

SMEs will face a fixed penalty of £400 if they fail to comply with the legislation, with the potential of incurring additional escalating fines.

In the last three months of 2014, 166 businesses were fined for non-compliance, according to figures from the Pensions Regulator. The trend suggests the smaller a company is, the more likely it will fail to comply.

Meanwhile, Elliott Silk, head of employee benefits at financial services company Sanlam UK, told HR magazine that the the upcoming election is causing some uncertainty among employers.

Silk said employers need to factor advice into their plans. He said: “As well as the physical costs, companies also need to take into account the time it will take to integrate a scheme into the workplace.

“Compliance with Auto Enrolment is a given, it is game-changing legislation.”

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