Automatic Enrolment & Workplace Pension Reform – More facts.
The current protests by Public Sector Workers about changes to their pension schemes and retirement age is hiding the fact that private sector workers will be much harder hit by the new regime being introduced. It also means that a great deal of Government time is being taken up by these larger pension schemes so there is insufficient time to “educate” small employers.
As with the changes to the Construction Industry Scheme, as we feared, the onus of informing those going to be affected is being pushed on to their advisers. We have just received a letter from The Pensions Regulator suggesting that we might like to inform our clients about the changes. We can certainly try but if you do receive any correspondence from The Pensions Regulator, don’t ignore it – again there will be heavy penalties for non-compliance. There are information sheets on the Department for Work & Pensions website and some are quite clear, but it is just going to be more red tape and more costs.