Pensions - Articles - DWP and tPR should advise employers on auto-enrolment

 Vanda Cox, Director of Corporate Benefits, says:

 “The Department of Work and Pensions and the Pensions Regulator (tPR) would help companies by recommending that they obtain expert advice on how best to meet their automatic enrolment obligations, otherwise there is a risk that many of the SMEs staging over the coming months will be non-compliant. It is clear that employer misconceptions around automatic enrolment requirements are rife and the consequence may be that many are running the risk of being in breach of the legislation and receiving a penalty notice or fine.

 “With the best will in the world, SMEs trying to ‘go it alone’ are unlikely to understand all the options available, and the cost and administration implications of the choices they make, until it is too late.

 “The pensions industry has responded to the need to provide affordable, straightforward automatic enrolment solutions that will work for smaller companies with limited budgets and resource constraints, and DWP and tPR should encourage companies to engage with expert advice in order to avoid poor employer outcomes.”