Auto Enrolment and Workplace Pensions

This is the year of workplace pensions – or auto enrolment. It doesn’t help that there are these two terms attempting to address the same issue. All employers, however small have to provide staff (which may be a spouse) a pension.

Strangely, in reality the selection of the pension is very much the least of the problems as in essence all this needs to comply with rules, ensuring that everyone (all staff) are properly assessed and informed about the pension being made available and then automatically enrolled. The employer and employee will both contribute, under auto enrolment terms, employees will pay more than employers.

This is really all about processes and being able to demonstrate compliance, much like VAT or PAYE. We do not set up workplace pensions, but are advising all employers to get and use some rather clever software by AE in Box. This will help you meet the deadlines and avoid fines. This year hundreds of thousands of small firms will need to comply.