Auto Enrolment - the administration nightmare is upon us | AIMS Accountants for Business

Auto Enrolment – the administration nightmare is upon us

/ Business and Economy

Author: Henry Ejdelbaum

Tags: Auto-enrolment, pensions, saving

For the last four or five years the topic of Auto Enrolment has grown as a topic of conversation for small business owners. The collective panic is now setting in as more and more small business owners are receiving the dreaded staging date letters from the pension regulator. Staging dates, exemptions, eligible jobholders, non-eligible jobholders, opting out, opting in, assessing the workforce, auto enrolment responsibilities, workplace pension – what does it all mean?

No wonder small business owners are panicked.

Auto-enrolment makes it compulsory for employers to automatically enrol their eligible workers into a pension scheme. Yet we are still told that almost 2/3 of workers are expected to opt-out of a scheme designed to help them save. How does that work? Research seems to have shown that whilst most workers know the scheme has been introduced to “help” them, they don’t really understand it so many would just rather have more cash each month.

It’s all very well making employers implement a scheme, but maybe the rules should have also required them to explain how it works properly to their employees. We certainly think so.

Either way it’s complicated, so get some professional help. Your local AIMS Accountant would be happy to explain the terms mentioned above as well as helping you become auto enrolment compliant.

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