19 May 2016

Companies fined £2,500 a day for pensions failings

Companies who fail to meet the auto enrolment duties face an initial £400 fixed penalty and the possibility of further escalating fines if they continue to fail to comply. By December last year, more than 1,500 fixed penalty fines had been issued, and this will only increase as the remaining 95% of companies reach their staging dates.

Recently, a professional football club was fined more than £20,000 for repeatedly failing to comply with its workplace pension duties, in what experts warned may be the first of many significant penalties for smaller companies.

They had failed to auto enrol eligible workers into a pension scheme in time for its auto enrolment staging date, neglected to pay employees’ pension contributions and did not write to staff explaining how auto enrolment affected them.

BPIF members have the perfect solution to this issue through Meridan, advisers to the Printing Industry Pension Scheme (PIPS). Meridan will ensure you comply with the auto enrolment legislation and you and your employees will have the comfort of knowing that they will be enrolled into an existing substantial fund overseen by both the BPIF and Unite.

For further details please contact Meridan on 0800 132100, or Steve Walker at the BPIF on 01676 526050.