Pension warning for Lancashire businesses

A leading pension adviser is warning Lancashire businesses not to delay in preparing themselves for the introduction of automatic workplace pensions.

Between now and 1 April, 2014, letters will follow to employers with between 50 and 62 staff and from receiving notification of their staging date businesses will have 12 months to comply with the new duties.

“Twelve months does not take long to pass by and people shouldn’t leave everything until the last minute,” said Mr Davenport.

“They also have to consider who their provider will be and work out how much it will cost them.

The automatic pension enrolment system was introduced in October last year to encourage more individuals to save towards their retirement, with the number of employees signed up recently hitting the one-million mark after the Government started by targeting the UK’s biggest firms.

Employers will be required to contribute a minimum amount into the scheme on behalf of their workers.

The Government hopes the system will ease a pension crisis which has seen recent figures from the Office for National Statistics showing that the number of people paying into a company pension plan had reached the lowest level for 60 years. “It is necessary because people are not saving enough for their retirement,” added Mr Davenport.