New research from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has revealed that 4 in 5 Kent small businesses will struggle to put pension reforms in place because the process is too complicated.
The process, known as Auto Enrolment, was introduced in October 2012 as part of the government’s plan to ensure that all workers save toward their retirement. It requires all businesses to enrol all eligible staff into a workplace pension scheme if they are aged between 22 and State Pension age or earn more than £9,440 a year and work in the UK.
And by 2018 every eligible employee across the UK will have to be enrolled with both employers and employees making pension contributions towards a pension pot unless an employee chooses to opt-out.
Data from The Pensions Regulator’s quarterly compliance for the period January to March 2015 shows that a total of 213 compliance notices and 198 fixed penalty notices were handed out, along with nine unpaid contributions notices. FSB said that many Kent employers are expected to suffer eye-watering penalties if they continue to not comply.
