Member Article

Auto-enrolment - ‘distressed market’ experience

Incorrect use of tax periods has been a common fault of employers trying to auto-enrol, according to LEBC Group (LEBC), as it delivers ‘retrofit’ solutions to businesses failing to meet their auto-enrolment commitments. These are technical time periods being either ignored or applied incorrectly in auto-enrolment planning.

As auto-enrolment continues to gather pace, LEBC has worked closely with those who have missed their staging date, taken incorrect actions, or used incorrect tax periods.

LEBC’s Divisional Director Glynn Jones commented, “Retroactions should be done sooner rather than later because after three months of non-compliance, an employer is fully responsible for all the pension contributions (including the employees); ie they can’t be shared with the workers until they comply fully with legislation.

“Six months ago, we upgraded our online ‘æComply’ service to include a ‘retro fit’ solution for those businesses that were unsuccessful in meeting the strict compliance rules or had not met their staging dates and subsequently could fall foul of The Pensions Regulator.

“We have built up a good understanding of this distressed, or secondary, market and received numerous requests from all sectors to see if our system ‘æComply’ could help. As a result, we’ve now completed a number of ‘retrofits’ and built up good experience in dealing directly with employers and interestingly with other Independent Financial Advisers and Employee Benefits Consultants as they put forward clients who struggled to maintain their compliance requirements.

“For incorrect actions taken by employers, there’s a tool that identifies what actions were incorrect and can, in retrospect, complete the actions that should have been taken, except postponement, of course.

“Businesses cannot ignore auto-enrolment. We understand The Pensions Regulator is closely monitoring the situation of late stagers and currently working with a number of employers to ensure they achieve compliance in good time.”

‘æComply’ is an online auto-enrolment enrolment tool that enables all employers, regardless of size, to manage their short and long-term compliance requirements and subsequently reduce the risk of thousands of employers incurring unnecessary non-compliance fines. It also includes solutions for employee enrolments, contribution levels, opt outs, certification, payroll monitoring and communications. With the right data, ‘æComply’ can produce backdated records (for up to 18 months) and a compliant audit trail which may help determine how The Pensions Regulator views that organisation going forward.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by LEBC Group Ltd .