Avoid a "red card" by getting auto-enrolment ready

Even in the middle of Euro 2016, you don’t often find me talking about football! However a recent business event saw me sharing the fortunes of Swindon Town FC, although more for their performance off the pitch. Keeping up with changing employment law can be a minefield, but Swindon Town’s failure to comply with pensions auto-enrolment duties led to a fine of ￡22,900. 

The Executive Director of The Pension Regulator said "This case illustrates what can happen when an employer buries their head in the sand and disregards their duties." Failing to comply on time will not save you money.  Not only do you risk a fine, you will also have to make back dated contributions.
 
The Pension Regulator expects 90% of the 500,000 businesses staging in 2016 to comply with the regulations leaving a potential 50,000 businesses with warnings and fines for non-compliance.  Fines range from ￡50 to ￡500 per day, depending on the size of the company, but all start with a penalty notice of ￡400. Even if you have complied with your staging requirements, fines can still be incurred for not getting the ongoing reporting and communications right.
 
Busy small business owners are more likely to bury their head in the sand, think it doesn't apply to them, or simply not get around to it amid the day to day challenges of running a business.  But if you have a PAYE scheme then you must comply.  
 
If you are not sure when auto-enrolment will start to apply to your small business, you can check online on the Pension Regulator’s website. You’ll also find a handy step by step tool to help you identify what action you need to take. 
 
At Kathryn Roynon HR & Training Consultancy, we have experience in taking employers through the process from start to finish, not only in terms of assessing the workforce and liaising with pension providers, but also issuing the required employee communications at each step of the process and reporting back to the Pensions Regulator.
 
Our auto-enrolment service will help take the pain out of the process by saving you time, being cost effective and ensuring you won't be one of the organisations incurring financial penalties for non compliance.  To find out more about getting your business ready for auto-enrolment and avoid the "red card", contact Kathryn on 01249 701486.