Approximately 99% of UK businesses urgently need to prepare for auto-enrolment of their staff into pension schemes. It is expected that accountancy firms will be drafted in to help businesses with their arrangements as the staging deadline looms next year.
Since the scheme began two years ago, almost £28,000 business have been automatically enrolled in workplace pensions. The financial services sector is getting ready for a slew of requests as companies with between 30-49 employees must be prepared for the staging process between August and October 2015.
Staging could begin as early as June 2015 for business with fewer than 30 employees, if pre-selected by the regulator, otherwise staging will be between November 2015 – 2017.
It is estimated that as many as 20% of small businesses and almost half micro-businesses are unaware of their staging dates and a number assume that their staging date is based on their current number of employees rather than the number they had recorded in April 2012 via their PAYE.