May 2016
4
Beware Employers - Do Not Ignore Automatic Enrolment Penalty Notices
As automatic enrolment is a requirement that all employers must comply with and with compliance rates of all sizes of employers remaining high (in the high nineties) there are a number of employers that are not complying. According to The Pensions Regulator's (TPR) latest quarterly compliance and enforcement bulletin the amount of Escalating Penalty Notices that are issued is rising.
An Escalating Penalty Notice (EPN) can be issued by The Pensions Regulator to help employer compliance with their automatic enrolment duties and is one of the statutory powers of the TPR. Employers risk a fine that increases daily if they do not regard a 28 day warning notice. On an EPN the date is specified that the employer must comply with certain duties or can be penalised with a fine that increases daily. For employers with 1 to 4 employees the fine is £50 per day and for employers with 5 to 49 employees the fine is £500 per day. If an employer ignores the EPN it may lead to additional costs that could have been avoided.
The Pensions Regulator's Press Release for the First Quarter of 2016 shows the headline figures below and can be found at http://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/doc-library/research-analysis.aspx#s16191
• 3,057 Compliance Notices issued - totalling 7,834 to date
• 806 Fixed Penalty Notices issued - totalling 2,234 from 2012 to date
• 96 Escalating Penalty Notices issued this quarter - totalling 127 to date
