’11 step pain relief plan’ for your auto enrolment administrative headache

The time involved, not to mention the cost of auto enrolment is a prospect you and many other small businesses have not been looking forward to and in some cases been causing sleepless nights. You may have been putting off doing anything about it but the staging dates for completion are now fast approaching for employers with 50 or less employees.

The need for employers to meet their new duties in the months ahead is likely to lead to a corresponding increase in enforcement action and penalties (currently The Pensions Regulator has issued 177 compliance notices and one unpaid contributions notice, as well as three fixed penalty notices).

Are you aware of how automatic enrolment will impact you and your employees? Do you know when your actual staging date is?

We don’t want this to happen to you so have devised an ‘11 step pain relief plan’ to help you get ready on time and avoid errors such as these:

• Registering with the Government Gateway and assuming that this is adequate – employers on or before their staging date must then also make a ‘declaration of compliance’ to the TPR.
• Omitting employees in a second, smaller PAYE scheme (eg, a directors’ scheme) – the larger scheme determines the single staging date for the employer, so all employees in all schemes must be enrolled by that date.
• Omitting self-employed workers who provide personal service without being in business on their own account – they are ‘workers’ in AE terms and must be enrolled like employees.
• Completing a declaration of compliance without nominating a pension provider – some employers incorrectly assume their payroll software handles the necessary submissions automatically, but they also need to set up a scheme.

Key dates to be aware of:

Number on payroll (at 1 April 2012) & staging date

50 – 61: 1 August 2014 – 1 April 2015

40 – 49: 1 August 2015

30 – 39: 1 October 2015

Under 30: 1 June 2015 – 1 April 2017

How much will the plan cost?

Our part within the process is to simply help you get through the administrative tasks involved in getting ready for auto enrolment. We are a totally independent organisation, making us unbiased and able to provide you with details of a range of pension schemes providers.

The fees below are one off charges for consultation and administrative support only:

30-50 employees = £500+VAT

1-29 employees = £250+VAT
Don’t put it off any longer. Call us on 01392 432654 and let us help.