30 September 2011

Auto-enrolment and PIPS

The government are introducing Auto enrolments in 12 months time and every employer will be expected to enrol their employees into a workplace pension scheme.

Employers may find the following information useful.

Financial adviser fee's; no need to enter into a fee agreement with a financial adviser where you fund the implementation of a pension scheme that does not belong to you and you may end up paying for employees who do not join.

Employee Opt-outs; you do not pay contributions for employees who opt-out but everybody is in before they choose to be out. Your total contribution will be reduced once the pension provider has completed the opt-out process.

Employer financial incentives; there are none, so take advantage of paying pension contributions before the deduction of tax and national insurance and save money on national insurance contributions. Auto-enrolment will allow this option.

Pension scheme; no need for a complicated scheme where employees get confused. Provide understandable scheme literature in advance saving time on employee presentations, the pension provider will send the technical version later.

Start date; employer contributions are 1% from your start date until October 2016. The start date system has not been designed to suit your business or productivity patterns, employees can be signed up in advance without disruption to workflow.

Be prepared; the pension regulator will impose fines on employers who do not register or start on time. Choose your pension provider wisely as some may close to new business without notice once they reach their financial or administration target.   

The following website www.printadviser.co.uk  will be regularly updated and will allow employers to sign up to receive information about the Printing Industry Pension Scheme. The information is provided by the Pension Regulator.