Wednesday, 28 January 2015 12:24
169 firms fined over auto-enrolment failures
Fines totalling £66,400 were handed out by The Pensions Regulator in the last three months of 2014 for failing to meet workplace pension requirements, it revealed today.
Officials said 169 employers failed to comply with their auto-enrolment duties in 2014.
A total of 166 Fixed Penalty Notices – each carrying a fine of £400 - were issued in the last three months of the year, making a total of £66,400. The regulator issued 1,139 compliance notices over the year.
These notices instruct an employer to remedy a contravention of one or more of their employer duties or risk a fine or further action from the regulator.
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Officials said a "significant number" of these were to employers who had missed their deadline to submit their declaration.
Approximately 30,000 medium sized employers, (those with approximately 62 - 149 workers), who staged in April-July had reached their deadline to complete their declaration of compliance by the start of December 2014.
The Pensions Regulator's director of automatic enrolment, Charles Counsell, said: "My message to all employers is that failing to declare within five months of your staging date means you risk being fined, which is why we recommend you start your automatic enrolment planning and preparation 12 months before staging.
"It appears some medium employers waited for a prompt from the regulator before completing their automatic enrolment duties. Employers must complete all their duties including making their declaration of compliance to The Pensions Regulator.
"With the mass market roll out of automatic enrolment to large numbers of small businesses in the coming months, we expect to see an increase in how often we need to use our powers."
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Officials said 169 employers failed to comply with their auto-enrolment duties in 2014.
A total of 166 Fixed Penalty Notices – each carrying a fine of £400 - were issued in the last three months of the year, making a total of £66,400. The regulator issued 1,139 compliance notices over the year.
These notices instruct an employer to remedy a contravention of one or more of their employer duties or risk a fine or further action from the regulator.
{desktop}{/desktop}{mobile}{/mobile}
Officials said a "significant number" of these were to employers who had missed their deadline to submit their declaration.
Approximately 30,000 medium sized employers, (those with approximately 62 - 149 workers), who staged in April-July had reached their deadline to complete their declaration of compliance by the start of December 2014.
The Pensions Regulator's director of automatic enrolment, Charles Counsell, said: "My message to all employers is that failing to declare within five months of your staging date means you risk being fined, which is why we recommend you start your automatic enrolment planning and preparation 12 months before staging.
"It appears some medium employers waited for a prompt from the regulator before completing their automatic enrolment duties. Employers must complete all their duties including making their declaration of compliance to The Pensions Regulator.
"With the mass market roll out of automatic enrolment to large numbers of small businesses in the coming months, we expect to see an increase in how often we need to use our powers."
Get FREE daily news summaries direct to your inbox. Sign up on the homepage now.
Follow us on Twitter and get frequent news alerts @FPM_online.
Or follow Editor Kevin O'Donnell - @FPM_Kevin or staff writer James Nadal - @FPM_James.
For the latest Sipp, SSAS and retirement news visit our sister news site www.sippsprofessional.co.uk and on Twitter @SippsPro.
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