Pensions - Articles - Regulator urges employers to check when AE affects them

 The Pensions Regulator is urging small and medium employers to find out when their new workplace pensions duties begin after research published showed many have yet to check when automatic enrolment will affect their business.

 Thousands of medium sized employers due to stage before August should now have in place a suitable pension provider and payroll software. If they have not, then they need to act now to avoid the risk of failing to meet their deadline to comply and the possibility of enforcement action, including fines.

 The message is that all employers need to act to comply with new workplace pensions’ law and automatically enrol certain workers into a pension scheme.

 The latest research into employer awareness and understanding of automatic enrolment finds that while 82% of small employers are aware of the changes, 47% still don’t know when they will need to act.

 Just one in four micro employers know their staging date – the date when their duties go live – compared with half of small employers and four out of five mediums.

 The Pensions Regulator’s executive director of automatic enrolment, Charles Counsell said:

 "Most medium employers due to automatically enrol between July and early 2015 know about the changes in the broadest sense, but many still haven’t considered exactly what they will need to do and by when.

 "It really is time to act. Too many employers still think they can leave it as late as possible and don’t understand the actions they need to take.

 "Around half of employers told us they will be relying on an adviser to help them meet their duties. I would urge those employers to start to investigate who can help them, when and how."