MONEY Pensions
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Time waits for no man (or woman)
utomatic enrolment is the biggest single change to pensions in decades, and over the coming years it will affect businesses of all shapes and sizes across the country. Its introduction presents accountants and payroll bureaus with a large task, but you can avoid trouble if you plan ahead.
Make sure you are as prepared as possible In the 2014/2015 financial year alone, around 32,000 businesses will have their staging dates for automatic enrolment, meaning the number of organisations looking for advice and support in achieving legal compliance will rapidly increase. With potential fines of up to £10,000 per day for non-compliance, taking a few steps yourself to make sure your business is prepared makes sense.
Don’t try to go it completely alone Automatic enrolment is complex, so it is expected that businesses will have questions about the best ways for implementation. Recently, we polled the opinions of 186 accountancy firms and payroll bureaus on the subject.
When asked to describe their level of involvement, 37% of respondents said they would be carrying out the required duties on behalf of their clients, with a further 21% saying they would provide technical advice. Look to seek out available information online, but getting help from accountancy firms is advisable - they are the experts after all! IRIS can help by offering a free auto enrolment health check.
Cut through the Complexity Confusion reigns about which individual within a given business should be made responsible for auto enrolment. The results of a more recent survey that we conducted spell this out. The survey asked nearly 100 enterprises that are staging imminently; “Who is primarily responsible within your organisation?” While 39% of respondents answered that payroll would hold primary responsibility, a significant majority felt that auto enrolment would involve collaboration between payroll and other departments, including HR and finance. 23% believed that finance alone should be responsible, and 10% answered HR. Ensure that accountancy
With heavy fines for non-compliance, Mark Paraskeva, CEO, SME division of IRIS Software, provides us with his top tips to avoid pension auto-enrolment disaster
practices cut through the complexity and provide a clear path forward. Know exactly who is responsible for what.
Ensure it happens in payroll In our view, to be effective, automatic enrolment has to be done in payroll, as the department has access to employees’ PAYE information, and the payroll calculations must be completed before assessment can take place. If you already have a payroll service provided, ensuring you have educated yourself and your team on automatic enrolment and the processes involved is still important. Having solutions in place, which will enable you to handle certain duties yourself, such as employee assessments and key communications, will give you a great advantage and save you time and money.
Fines of up to £10,000 per day for noncompliance are not to be taken lightly
Contact: www.iris.co.uk/autoenrolment
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30/06/2014 13:50