Research released today shows the vast majority of payroll administrators and accountants now expect to have some involvement with automatic enrolment.
96% of payroll administrators and 95% of accountants said they anticipate helping clients with their duties according to the research from The Pensions Regulator.
Click here to read the Intermediaries' awareness, understanding and activity relating to workplace pension reforms report in full.
Awareness of the reforms remains high amongst the intermediary groups, which include pension scheme trustees, independent financial advisers (IFAs), employee benefit consultants (EBCs), payroll administrators, HR professionals, accountants and bookkeepers.
But new questions introduced since the spring 2013 survey show that intermediaries still have work to do to get to grips with some of the details that they are likely to be assisting with. This includes:
- the types of earnings to be assessed
- what a pay reference period is
- the duty to enrol workers who opt in during the postponement period (if used)
- the types of workers who are eligible for automatic enrolment (namely employees and contractors).
The Pensions Regulator’s executive director of automatic enrolment Charles Counsell said:
"Many advisers have risen to the challenge - as well as the opportunity - presented by the roll out of automatic enrolment and are keen to assist their clients.
"The Pensions Regulator has a key role to play in supporting these intermediaries by providing the detailed information they need to help their clients prepare for automatic enrolment.
"There are still gaps in knowledge. We will be highlighting our role over the coming months to advisers ensuring they are aware of the information and help that is available to them.
"We also need to ensure advisers and employers know that the regulator is not just a source of information but also the body that all employers need to submit their automatic enrolment details to in order to be compliant."
Today's survey follows one last month into the awareness and attitudes of employers, which found 80% of medium employers believed automatic enrolment is a good idea for workers but also found low awareness of the need to register with The Pensions Regulator four months after staging.
Other key findings include:
- Levels of understanding were lower among payroll administrators (77%), trustees (67%), and lowest among accountants (60%) and bookkeepers (48%), both of whom are more likely to be dealing with employers furthest away from their staging dates.
- Most financial advisers had already helped their clients (69% of IFAs and 91% of pensions consultants).
- The main challenges for HR professionals continued to concern cost, while payroll administrators were more concerned about the lack of understanding and their clients’ perception that the reforms were not relevant to their business.
- Awareness and understanding levels remained largely unchanged among both accountants and bookkeepers compared with autumn 2012. Many had already had some form of interaction with their clients about automatic enrolment (62% of accountants and 38% of bookkeepers).
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