Nearly all (99%) of the UK’s largest employers have met their legal duties around auto-enrolment without the need for The Pensions Regulator (TPR) to use its statutory powers to force them to do so, according to a report by TPR.
Its Commentary and analysis report 2013/14 found that 10,817 employers completed their declaration of compliance between April 2013 and March 2014, confirming that they had complied with their duties.
It also found that 785 potential non-compliance cases have been referred for investigation.
In 78% of cases closed in the period, no further action needed to be taken because the employer become compliant shortly after TPR’s intervention.
The research also found:
- There were 1.2 million unique visits to the auto-enrolment landing page on TPR’s website and more than 115,000 letters were sent to employers to ensure they are aware of what they need to do and by when.
- 72% of employers used a defined contribution (DC) scheme for auto-enrolment, while 24% used a defined benefit (DB) or hybrid scheme.
- 56% of employers that declared using a trust-based DC scheme opted for a DC master trust, and 51% of eligible jobholders were enrolled into them.
- 4,590 of employers used postponement, the option available to employers to delay the assessment of their workers by up to three months from their staging date.
Charles Counsell (pictured), executive director for automatic enrolment at The Pensions Regulator, said: “Our aim has been to encourage a proactive compliance culture among employers.
“The past year saw near universal compliance, with many employers actively embracing the changes with innovative communications to ensure their workers understood the benefits of a workplace pension.
“There is plenty of good news, with employers keen to ensure they do things properly and low opt-out rates. But we know there are challenges ahead.
“We will now continue our work over the months ahead to ensure medium and small employers understand their obligations, comply with their legal duties and continue to view non-compliance by other employers as unacceptable.”
