Act now on pensions

The call to action follows research into awareness of automatic enrolment published in September. It showed around 20% of small employers and almost half of micro employers (with fewer than five workers) don't know the exact date from which the new duties apply to them. The advertising campaign is aimed at reaching out to small and micro employers who, in some cases, only employ one or two workers, with a clear message from The Pensions Regulator: 'Act now. It's the law'. The message itself remains simple – if you are an employer, you will have new duties. The lessons of the roll out of automatic enrolment over the past two years have led us to continue to recommend that all employers, including manufacturing businesses, start preparing 12 months ahead of their staging date. Failure to prepare in good time puts employers at risk of non-compliance and this can ultimately lead to financial penalties. We expect that, with significantly more employers subject to the new duties, the number of times we will have to use enforcement powers – including issuing compliance notices and fines – will be likely to rise. It is crystal clear that those that leave it late are the ones who most often find it difficult to be prepared on time. We will take appropriate action against employers who fail to meet their duties on time, including automatically enrolling their eligible staff. The vast majority of large employers completed their declaration of compliance without the regulator needing to intervene and, when we have intervened, we have successfully helped employers achieve compliance. As a result of the employers' actions, more than 4.6 million workers have begun saving after being automatically enrolled into a workplace pension. The Pensions Regulator is now writing to tens of thousands of small employers whose duties begin in the next 12 months to alert them to their duties and the need to take action. Right now, the key messages for all employers in the manufacturing sector are find out your staging date and prepare in good time to avoid the risk of financial penalty.