Whilst nearly 5.4 million people have been enrolled, 97% of all UK employers are yet to reach their staging date so the biggest challenge is yet to come.
These smaller employers are fundamentally different to those that have gone before them. Most do not have any in-house pensions expertise and they are less likely to have the help of an expert adviser. At best they may have somebody managing finance and payroll but many small business owners will be fitting auto enrolment around their other day-to-day responsibilities.
Lack of preparation remains a concern and research* we recently conducted with small and micro firms revealed one in five (20%) of small firms haven’t given any thought to auto enrolment but a staggering 75% of micro firms admitted they haven’t thought about it.
Of the companies that signed up with us in the second quarter of 2015, nearly one in three (32%) completed their application either very close to their staging date or after the deadline had passed. Of these, 19% contacted us within a month before their staging date while 13% left it until after their staging date had passed. Leaving auto enrolment late puts increased pressure on both the employer and the provider and The Pensions Regulator and DWP need to continue to do all they can to push importance of planning ahead.”
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