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Auto enrolment – it’s coming soon to a business near you!
Once upon a time, well, 2012 actually, auto enrolment seemed like a tiny speck far off in the distance that it was said would affect all UK business owners and employees. For most, it seemed too far in the future to worry about.
Well it might have seemed like a long way off back then but lots of bigger companies have already enrolled their staff into workplace pension schemes (that’s what the ‘I’m in!’ adverts were all about) and by 2018 smaller companies will have to be on board too, with their own pension schemes sorted out.
Auto enrolment is a government initiative which offers millions of people the chance to save for their retirement into a pension scheme provided by their employer.
But why is this all so important? Well, because we are generally living longer and (sadly in many cases) undersaving, so the law has been changed to help people save for their retirement through their company (this is the ‘automatic’ enrolment bit).
The onus here is on the most senior person within an organisation (usually the owner) to put a pension scheme in place for their staff to join and hopefully to save enough money for their retirement helped along by an additional (minimum) contribution by the company for each member of staff in the scheme.
Although it might not seem all that complicated, there’s a lot to be done before a business is ready to offer an automated pension scheme that satisfies HMRC and the Pension Regulator, not to mention all the changes that will need to happen behind the scenes at work (we’re talking payroll, a load of admin and collecting of information, notifying staff and having the system software that can cope with the changes).
When you’ve got enough on your plate with a business to run, it makes sense to speak to the experts who can provide you with all the auto enrolment information you need, when you need it.
So whether you’re a business that likes to plan, or a flybytheseatofyourpants kind of business, we’re here to help you and your staff get on board with auto enrolment.
We will be sending out information about Auto-enrollment over the coming weeks through our Twitter and LinkedIn accounts. Please feel free to follow us on Twitter and connect with us on LinkedIn. If you need information before this please do not hesitate to contact us.