One-in-seven firms break auto-enrolment rules

New figures from Aviva indicate that one-in-seven businesses fail to automatically enrol their staff in a workplace pension scheme ahead of their staging deadline.

In Q4 2016, 14% of employers enrolling their staff in an Aviva auto-enrolment scheme did so beyond their staging date, resulting in the company to comment on this “worrying trend”.

In addition, more than a third (38%) of businesses that did enrol on time left it to “the last minute”, with less than half (48%) preparing for their auto-enrolment obligations.

Aviva’s figures tell a similar story to that of The Pensions Regulator, which has been forced to issue a significantly higher number of compliance notices to business owners in the last 12 months, with small and micro businesses reaching their staging date. That figure could potentially grow with a further 50,000 business reaching their staging date in 2017.

Andy Beswick, Managing Director of Business Solutions at Aviva, insisted the trend was “something we need to keep a close watch on”.

“Auto-enrolment is now becoming a reality for very small companies, which have many priorities and not necessarily the resources to deal with them all,” said Beswick.

“We understand this and we’re doing all we can to help these companies. We can help those companies that have missed their deadline and we’ve set up a simple online process to get a workplace pension in place.

“The last thing anybody wants is to see small business owners getting fined because they haven’t got their workplace pension set up in time.”

TaxAssist Accountants works with Wren Sterling, a national firm of independent financial advisers, who can discuss a pension scheme with you. Please contact us today on 01249 848121 or drop us a line using our online enquiry form and our accountants will be able to provide you with more details.

Date published 18 Jan 2017 | Last updated 18 Jan 2017