Auto enrolment: How do the new pension changes affect your business?

Employee’s automatic enrolment into a pension scheme is now live within larger companies and the staging dates for smaller companies are on the horizon.

By Simon Denye, tax director, McDade Roberts.

Companies with less than 250 employees will be affected from 1st April 2014. Between 2014 and 2015, there will be on average over 3,000 companies per month having to comply with auto enrolment (known as staging), with heavy daily fines for missing staging dates from The Pensions Regulator.

Between 2015 and 2017, over 1 million companies will be staging, which is a staggering 51,134 companies per month. One of these companies could be yours.

Will pension auto enrolment affect your business?

The answer is most probably, yes. Anyone with a PAYE reference MUST comply and there are serious fines for non-compliance. Fines can be a fixed penalty of £400 plus a daily penalty dependant on headcount. For example; a business with 5 to 49 employees could face a fine of £500 per day for non-compliance.

What should I do about auto enrolment?

Whether you have an existing pension scheme or not, you absolutely must ensure that you comply with the government’s pension reform regulations. Any old pension scheme will not do. It must follow the new rules.

Following the rules means following the new regulations the government have put in place for your company pension and it also means you have a duty to explain all changes to your staff so that they are aware of the situation.

The good news is that we are here to help.

McDade Roberts have offices in Longridge, Garstang, Fulwood and Bamber Bridge and a team of people ready to take questions on auto enrolment to help businesses in our local area. With a dedicated payroll team and our sister company M.R. Financial Services Ltd, we have a qualified knowledge base to inform companies what they need to do to meet the new pension changes. The other good news is that we are a very friendly bunch and pride ourselves on our down to earth advice. If any Lancashire Business View readers need advice on auto enrolment or general pension or financial advice, call us – the first consultation is always free so there is nothing at all to lose.”