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New auto-enrolment guidance and re-enrolment guidance

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Hundreds of thousands of small employers will need to meet their pension duties in 2017 and so The Pensions Regulator has refreshed and updated their website with new auto-enrolment guidance and re-enrolment guidance to make it simpler for employers to understand their duties. They have made choosing a pension scheme for staff easier with the addition of new information and guidance to help you choose a pension scheme, by listing all schemes available to small employers, prompts to consider tax relief, set-up and ongoing costs, as well as payroll compatibility. It also provides information on how to find an adviser for further help in choosing a scheme should you need it. CLICK HERE for the list of available pension schemes.

The new auto-enrolment guidance also has new essential guidance for larger employers due to begin re-enrolment which covers everything they need to know, from choosing a re-enrolment date to completing the re-declaration of compliance. There are also webinars with details about who needs to be put back in the scheme, and by when.

Employers need to comply with their duties under auto-enrolment – it’s the law. If an employer chooses to ignore their duties they will face enforcement action which can include fines and prosecution. There are more details on The Pension Regulator’s website on what to do if you are in breach of your duties and what enforcement you could expect. Their policy is to make good the contributions by backdating them from when they should have started.

Please visit The Pensions Regulator website for all the information you need.

From April 2018, employers will need to make arrangements to ensure they increase the legal minimum contributions rate to 5%, of which the employer’s minimum increases to 2%. They increase again in April 2019 when the rates go up to 8%, of which the employer’s minimum will be 3%.

Auto-Enrolment Declaration of Compliance

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Auto-enrolment saw it’s fourth anniversary in October, yet more than 900,000 employers have yet to stage and fulfill their employer duties. This means the challenge posed by the initial roll-out is not over. All employers with one or more staff have a legal requirement to complete a declaration of compliance. Even if that one member of staff does not want to be in a pension scheme, they will still need to be automatically enrolled before they can ask to opt out, so you must have a workplace pension in place.

From your given staging date, you have 5 months in which to complete your auto-enrolment declaration of compliance. It is the employer’s legal duty to complete the declaration correctly and on time. If it is not completed on time, then action is likely to be taken by The Pensions Regulator (TPR), which could lead to a fine.

You will need to successfully sign up for a Government Gateway account in order to complete your online declaration, but you can start gathering the information before that by using the declaration checklist. If you have difficulties implementing auto-enrolment or gathering the information to complete your deadline, please contact TPR immediately.

Please visit The Pensions Regulator for employers to check your duties.

Personal Tax Account

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Have you registered with HMRC for your Personal Tax Account?

It’s quick to register and you can view all of your tax information in the one place online.

The Personal Tax Account (PTA) was launched in December 2015 and gives customers a one-stop shop for all of their tax information.  It gives customers the flexibility to access HMRC’s services at a time that suits them as the service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

 

You can use your PTA to:

  • check your Income Tax estimate and tax code
  • fill in, send and view a personal tax return
  • claim a tax refund
  • check and manage your tax credits
  • check your State Pension
  • track tax forms that you’ve submitted online
  • check or update your Marriage Allowance
  • tell HMRC about a change of address
  • check or update benefits you get from work, e.g. company car details and medical insurance

More services will be added in the future.

Opening a Personal Tax Account doesn’t take long at all and can be done by visiting www.gov.uk/personal-tax-account

National Minimum Wage

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The largest ever legal claim against the care sector has been launched in what could turn out to be one of the worst breaches of pay rules ever seen.

Seventeen care workers claim to have been paid less than half the minimum wage, the company says that is not correct and that it pays its workers an average hourly rate that exceeds the minimum wage.  An employment tribunal will now examine whether the company is correct to claim it pays above the minimum wage.

October 2016 sees the increase in National Minimum Wage rate, you can view them here NMW2016

 

 

 

 

 

Tracing your Pension: Is it Lost?

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Tracing your pension is not always easy, especially if you’ve been in more than one scheme or have changed employer throughout your career. But it’s important that you do claim your pension, so the sooner you trace a lost pension, the better. Many people are concerned about lost pensions. Fortunately, there are several ways you can find them.

Are you sure it’s lost?
This is the first question you need to ask yourself. Even if you have a certificate from a pension scheme, it doesn’t always mean that you have a pension entitlement.
You might have had a refund of your contributions when you left that employer for example. It’s also good to know that many older pension schemes may have required a certain number of years of membership from you, before giving you any benefits.

As a rough rule:
If you left the employer before April 1975, it’s likely you will have received a refund of your pension contributions. If you didn’t pay into the scheme you probably won’t be entitled to anything, unless you were in the scheme for at least 15 to 20 years.
If you left the employer between April 1975 and April 1988, you will have a pension, provided, you were over age 26 and had completed five years in the scheme. If not, you will almost certainly have had a refund of your pension contributions and have no further rights.
If you left the employer after 1988, you will be entitled to a pension, as long as you completed two years’ service. If you left the pension scheme with fewer than two years’ service, you probably received a refund of your contributions at the time you left.

Looking for workplace pensions
The first place to contact is the Pension Tracing Service. This has a register of all workplace schemes.
If your company scheme was contracted out, you might be able to trace it through the National Insurance Contribution Office.
If you still aren’t successful, contact the pensions advisory service.

Looking for personal pensions
If you’re looking to trace a personal pension, then please contact the pensions advisory service. They will need as much information as possible regarding the scheme, your dates of employment and copies of any certificates you still have. One of their pensions specialists, can talk you through what you will need and what they will do to try to help you find your pension.

For more information, please contact The Pensions Advisory Service. A pension specialist from their team will be happy to help with whatever pensions-related question you have. Their help is always free.