The Pensions Regulator issued the following announcement on 17 July 2014:
“The national roll out of automatic enrolment has reached a landmark with all of the country’s largest businesses now having passed their staging dates.
The Pensions Regulator’s automatic enrolment: commentary and analysis report 2013-14, published today, shows that 99% of the UK’s largest employers met their legal duties without the need for the regulator to use its statutory powers.”
With most of the larger businesses toeing the line medium sized and then smaller businesses will be reaching their staging dates over the next twelve months. In their press release The Pensions Regulator goes on to say:
“Thousands of medium employers are currently reaching their staging dates – when their duties go live – and the regulator has begun sending out letters to the first of the small employers (with less than 50 workers) who are due to automatically enrol their eligible workers next summer.”
Where is your practice positioned in the auto enrolment (AE) advisory loop?
The Liberal Democrat pension’s minister has been quoted as saying that he needs to spend more time with accountants…
Is the accountancy profession drifting into another regulated service area where there is much to be done, but where the opportunity to recover costs and charge a decent fee is limited? Or, is this an opportunity to develop a further income stream for your practice and serve the best interests of your clients?
Practitioners who have yet to see how this will affect their clients should take a look at the Pensions Regulator website. There’s a “Help your clients prepare for automatic enrolment” page at http://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/professionals/help-clients-prepare-for-auto-enrolment.aspx.
Whatever your present level of engagement with AE, the “staging date” clock is ticking and the Pensions Regulator has teeth. Sitting on the fence is seemingly not an option.
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