Midlands firms urged to act now following first auto-enrolment fines

AS The Pension Regulator (TPR) issues its first fines to employers for failing to meet their auto-enrolment duties, Bromsgrove-based workplace pensions and employee benefits specialist Johnson Fleming is urging firms to act now in order to avoid a similar fate.

According to the latest automatic enrolment compliance and enforcement bulletin, published by TPR, three fixed penalty notices were issued, each imposing hundreds of pounds worth of fines on employers.

This follows publication of further research which revealed that the proportion of non-compliance investigations by TPR that uncover breaches has more than doubled since the start of the year.

Iain Chadwick, consultancy director at Johnson Fleming, said: “As more and more employers reach their auto-enrolment staging date, these figures represent what is likely to be a continuing upward trend across the UK business landscape.

“These findings also suggest that efforts from TPR and the Government to communicate the auto-enrolment message to employers are simply not getting through.

“Every employer throughout Britain should see this as an urgent wake-up call, to ensure they are not left behind in an increasingly complex pensions market.

“Whether you’re an SME approaching your staging date, or a large corporation heading towards re-enrolment, our advice is to avoid complacency and act now.

“With legislative changes such as alterations to defined contribution pensions already reshaping the landscape, it is essential that firms conduct a thorough audit of their scheme in order to remain compliant.

“I think this is just the tip of the iceberg for employers, who now face mounting pressure from the governing authority to avoid breaches and ensure the on-going auditing and compliance of qualifying pensions.”

In a bid to tackle this increasingly complex sector, Johnson Fleming has produced a series of free guides to auto-enrolment.