Pension auto enrolment hits 1 million landmark
The millionth worker was automatically enrolled onto a workplace pension in July according to the Pensions Regulator.
All companies will have to automatically enrol eligible workers (which can include PAYE temps and employed agency workers) into qualifying pension schemes, deduct contributions for workers and make employer contributions on their behalf.
The national auto enrolment scheme commenced in October 2012 with the UK’s largest firms helping their workers to start saving for retirement. The gradual roll-out means that each company has a staging date, determined by the number of persons employed in April 2012.
Medium-sized firms are now starting the process and smaller businesses will gradually follow suit until 2018, by which time the government states that every employer in the country will have helped their staff start a pension.
Charles Counsell, Director of Automatic Enrolment at The Pensions Regulator, said: “There is still much to be done, with the challenge of large numbers of medium employers due to automatically enrol their workers early next year.”
Theresa Mimnagh, Associate Director at Lawspeed said: “Both employers and recruiters should prepare now, know their company’s staging date and how pension arrangements will affect them. For recruiters it is not simply a question of how you will manage arrangements but also whether you can pass the costs on to hirers. This may be something that is governed by your contractual arrangements.”
How Lawspeed can help:
- Advice on the various factors surrounding workplace pensions
- Contracts
- How to set up arrangements and processes
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