It has been reported that micro-businesses are struggling to prepare for auto-enrolment as staging dates loom over the next coming year. The costs for auto-enrolment are estimated at £8,000 per small business, yet 40% of vulnerable small businesses believe it will cost nothing to set up whilst 11% think it will cost around £5,000. On… Read more »
Posts By: ilyas Patel
Auto-Enrolment excludes the vulnerable
Although auto-enrolment is an undeniable success, its eligibility criteria means that it excludes those most in need argues Portal Financial. The criteria states, that to be auto enrolled you must be between 22 years and state pension age and be earning over £10,000.  It is reported that women are particularly affected, as the comprise nearly… Read more »
Horizon 2020 – New European Funding
Do you have a project that you would like to commercialise in the next three years? Horizon 2020 provides grant funding for SMEs to further enhance technical or innovative developments. Projects are funded at 70% or 100%, depending on the sector. If you have a prototype or proof of concept that you would like to… Read more »
Auto Enrolment – Small Businesses “Major Challenge”
Small businesses with fewer than 30 employees will start to be phased into the government’s auto enrolment scheme this month and will have to provide their staff with workplace pensions. These small businesses will range from those with just one employee upwards and will be gradually asked by the Pension’s Regulator (TPR) to provide a… Read more »
RTI Penalty Notices – Smaller Employers
Late or non-filing penalties for RTI returns now apply to all schemes with a three-day tolerance that HMRC has confirmed, will apply for the whole of 2015/16. Employers with fewer than 50 employees who failed to submit their 2014/15 Month 12 FPSs on time with no late reporting reason are likely to receive a penalty… Read more »
Employers back rise in auto enrolment contributions
High on the priorities of Ros Altmann, the new minister for Pensions, should be an early review of Auto Enrolment. It is reported that the new minister said that Auto Enrolment contributions would need to be revisited and recent research revealed that employers support such proposals. In a recent survey, over 200 senior HR and finance… Read more »
Auto-Enrolment – Companies without staff
If you don’t have any staff other than directors, you may not have any automatic enrolment duties. You won’t have any duties if the only people working for you are: you as the sole director, or a number of directors, none of whom has an employment contract, or a number of directors, only one of… Read more »
Auto-Enrolment – compliance and fines
In March, the Pension’s Regulator published its quarterly declaration of compliance bulletin. It showed the total number of employers fined for failing to comply with their workplace pension duties had reached 169 by the end of last year. There were also a significant number of compliance notices (1,139) issued. Despite the clear message and reminders… Read more »
Auto-Enrolment – NEST Pension
It has been reported that NEST has now enrolled more than 2 million members in the last two and a half years and has a new member joining every 40 seconds. The recently appointed Trustee chair at NEST, Otto Thoresen said “This is a major milestone for NEST but this is only part of a… Read more »
AUTO-ENROLMENT MISCONCEPTIONS
Many companies are of the misconception that if their employees do not wish to contribute to a Qualifying Workplace Pension Scheme, they are not required to set one up for Auto-Enrolment and can notify the Pension’s Regulator of their decision. However, new legislation states that it is compulsory for ALL employers to provide their employees… Read more »