Employee Benefits Summit 2010: Most employers will not offer Nest (national employment savings trust)

The majority of employers attending the Employee Benefits Summit in Monte Carlo said they will not offer the incoming pensions plan, the national employment savings trust (Nest) to staff.

A poll conducted during the first day of the event, held at the Monte Carlo Bay Hotel, showed that 45% of delegates said they would not offer Nest, compared to 43% who said they were thinking about it and 13% who said they would be implementing the national scheme.

Meanwhile, 73% said they had a broad understanding of the new regulations around Nest and auto-enrolment coming in from 2012 but still needed to familiarise themselves with some aspects of the legislation.

During his presentation Richard Bartlett, head of direct distribution, at the Personal Accounts Delivery Authority (Pada), said “Employers are literally knocking on my door and saying ‘we need to start taking to you about Nest after about one year of me saying ‘we need to talk about Nest’.”

Bartlett said that one of the most appealing features of a Nest plan is that it is easily transportable from job to job.

He also said that Pada will be supporting a number of employers set up the Nest scheme in 2011.

As it stands at the moment the annual contributions on Nest will £3,600 and there will be an annual management charge of 0.3% and a contribution charge of around 2%, which is likely to be taken away once the scheme has paid for its self said Bartlett.

Read more breaking news from the Employee Benefits Summit