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Auto-enrolment – Two Options – Prepare or Pay the Fine
Unlike many previous Government legislative changes the new rules apply to all UK employers regardless of their size, and all businesses will therefore be affected at some point leading up to April 2017.
All employers have been given a staging date – this is the date by which they are required to auto-enrol eligible jobholders into a qualifying workplace pension scheme. The recommended lead in time to get pension in place is 6 months.
You can find you’re staging date at www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk – just enter your PAYE reference number (this can be found on your P35).
There is misconception that Auto-enrolment is just about setting up a pension scheme, but that is only a very small part of it. The biggest challenge for employers will be the ongoing monitoring, reporting, record keeping and compliance associated with auto-enrolment whilst also ensuring that all employees are being treated correctly and are communicated with appropriately every time they run their payroll.
For you as the employer, there are 33 new duties and responsibilities you must fulfil and the Pension Regulator has issued more than 250 pages of guidance notes to help you! Ignoring this legislation could result in fines of up to £5,000 a day being levied.
You need to act now if you have 50 or more employees and have not started your preparation.
If you would like more advice please contact Ann Charge at Orchard Financial Management