Auto-enrolment – No Minister!

The Pension Regulator (tPR) published its first in-depth analysis of the initial implementation of auto-enrolment a few months ago. 

It revealed that in July it had launched investigations into 89 employers for possibly failing to comply with the Government's new rules, issued 38 warning letters and one enforcement notice. 

If large companies have struggled to understand the complexities surrounding the new legislation how many medium and small employers are likely to fall foul of the Regulator when it's their turn to stage?

A year on from the launch of auto-enrolment we will begin to see the volume of employers hitting their auto-enrolment staging date rising dramatically with many having little or no experience of workplace pensions. In May 2014 alone 12,000 employers are scheduled to stage with the vast majority having a fraction of the resources available to them that larger employers, who have clearly struggled, have had at their disposal.

Against this backdrop the message from Steve Webb, the Pensions Minister, has consistently been that the auto-enrolment regime has been set up so that ‘nobody needs to pay for advice’ and that the government has ‘legislated for quality’ particularly with the default option that the National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) has been designed to provide.

Our experience to date strongly suggests this is not the case. BROADSTONE’s view is that it is totally unrealistic for employers to plot a path through auto-enrolment without guidance from an experienced advisor. As the number of employers looking to stage increases sharply this will inevitably place a strain on advisors capacity to assist leaving short supply (and potentially increased fees) for employers that leave it late.

So sorry Minister we would strongly advise that employers seek to engage with an advisor as soon as possible rather than attempt to navigate their own path through auto-enrolment. This will avoid a rushed (or failed) implementation and the potential to fall foul of the Regulator.

If you’d be interested in discussing how we can help you please contact me.

Mark Howlett

CEO

Telephone: +44 (0)20 7893 3456

Email:  contactus@broadstoneltd.co.uk