There has been an increase in the number of Escalating Penalty Notices (EPNs) given out to businesses, as more and more companies are failing to enrol their staff members in a workplace pension scheme.
The Pensions Regulator (TPR) is reminding enterprises that they do not want to have to face business dispute lawyers in Cheshire or pay hefty fines by ignoring reminder notices to set up pension initiatives for their workers.
Charges for failing to comply with the new legislation start at £50 per day for companies with one to four employees. They rise to £500 daily for those with five to 49 members of staff, £2,500 for up to 249 workers, and £5,000 for between 250 and 499 payrolls. The rate can be as much as £10,000 a day for big companies with over 500 staff members.
Charles Counsell, executive director for automatic enrolment, said while the majority of employers comply on time, he noted: “Others need a nudge and are prompted to meet their duties when one of our notices comes through their letterbox.”
TPR revealed 95 per cent of the first small employers that are required to enrol their staff in a workplace pension scheme have done so.
Indeed, minister for pensions Baroness Ros Altmann added that 100,000 companies have already complied with the initiative, enrolling more than six million on to pensions.
Despite this, many employers still need reminding not to ignore their duties, as 127 EPNs have already been issued so far by March 2016, after companies failed to comply following receipt of a statutory notice.