Are you willing to risk your business’s credit rating by ignoring your pension duties?
That’s the message being broadcast by The Pensions Regulator (TPR) this quarter as the first non-compliant employers receive their County Court Judgements (CCJs) for persistently ignoring and failing to pay their auto-enrolment fines / penalty notices.
What’s worse is that if the business doesn’t cough up the payments within 30 days of receiving the CCJ, it automatically gets added to their credit record and will remain there for 6 years – affecting their ability to borrow money in the future.
‘At Tribunal, no employer has been able to show that they had a reasonable excuse for failure to comply’
In the TPR’s latest ‘Compliance and Enforcement’ bulletin, the figures show that whilst the number of Escalating Penalty Notices (EPNs) and Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) nearly doubles, so is the number of people appealing their fines at a Tribunal. Yet so far no employer could show they’ve had a reasonable excuse for their failure to comply.
What does this mean for employers?
Aside from the obvious risks to your businesses credit rating mentioned above, the longer you take to comply with the regulations, the more it will cost you. By staying on top of your obligations and planning early to meet your staging date or your re-enrolment dates, plus any additional compliance declaration deadlines, you will save yourself time, money and hassle.
At Kerr Henderson, we understand that making changes to staff pension schemes and the advent of auto-enrolment / re-enrolment means your business strategies need to adapt quickly. Our dedicated Corporate Pensions Team can help you and your business see things from a fresh perspective and together we can effectively review your objectives and obligations to develop a strategy to suit your business needs.
If you would like to find out more about how our Corporate Pension Team can help you, get in touch today by email: enquiries@kerrhenderson.com or call 0345 247 7777.
Source: http://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/docs/automatic-enrolment-use-of-powers-february-2017.pdf