The past 4 years have seen businesses of all sizes busily preparing and implementing auto-enrolment. Since large businesses began automatically enrolling their employees back in 2012, small firms have been counting down the days until their ‘staging date’ – a technical term referring to the day your employees are officially enrolled onto your scheme.
Now that small firms across the country are finally going through the staging process, their attention turns to what comes after. In this post, we take a brief look at a few of your post-staging date auto-enrolment obligations.
Maintaining your workplace pension scheme
Paying contributions
Employers who fail to contribute to their employees’ pensions will face penalties. It is therefore critical that you keep on top of your payments and you budget accordingly.
The current minimum contribution is 1% of the employee’s annual salary. This will rise to 2% in the 2018/19 tax year and 3% from April 2019 onwards.
Contributions must be paid into your pension scheme by the 22nd of the month after you deduct the employee’s contribution.
Reporting requirements
Employers are obligated to report the following information once they are running auto-enrolment:
- Scheme return: Employers must submit a scheme including information about the pension scheme return every 1-3 years.
- Breach of the law: The Regulator must be informed if the employer suspects a breach of the law.
- A notifiable event: Employers with defined benefit schemes must contact the Pensions Regulator when a notifiable event occurs. Broadly speak the aim is to warn the Pensions Regulator that a company may become insolvent and the pension scheme is underfunded.
- Late payment of contributions: Employers must notify the regulator whenever contribution payments are late.
Contact us for further information about your reporting obligations.
Reviewing your scheme
Periodical reviews of your scheme are essential to ensure that it complies with future changes to auto-enrolment rules. Start out by speaking to the scheme’s trustees or provider, asking them whether it meets regulatory standards. The Pensions Regulator has published a guidance document on setting up a system for monitoring your scheme.
Contact us
We provide advice to businesses preparing for auto-enrolment compliance. Whether you’re preparing for your staging date or you’re unsure about your post-staging obligations, we’re here to help.
Fill out our contact form, phone us on to learn more about our auto-enrolment services.
© 2019 Warr & Co Chartered Accountants. Warr & Co Chartered Accountants is a member of The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales (ICAEW). Whilst the information detailed here is updated regularly to ensure it remains factually correct, it does not in any way constitute specific advice and no responsibility shall be accepted for any actions taken directly as a consequence of reading it. If you would like to discuss any of the points raised and / or engage our services in providing advice specific to your personal circumstances, please feel free to contact any one of the partners on 0161 477 6789 or contact us via our website forms. Warr & Co Chartered Accountants are registered to carry our audit work in the UK, our audit registration number is C002961684, for more information please visit www.auditregister.org.uk.