Automatic enrolment and triennial re-enrolment

Charles Counsell Executive Director - automatic enrolment, The Pensions Regulator

CFO conference

Thursday 18 June 2015

Agenda

• Why automatic enrolment?

• Update on progress so far

• Challenges to come

• Re-enrolment - what you have to do

• Useful links

This presentation remains the property of The Pensions Regulator. The contents of these slides must not be reproduced without express permission.

Why enrolment?

• Life expectancy rising

• Less people saving

• Aim to increase private

pension saving in the UK

This presentation remains the property of The Pensions Regulator. The contents of these slides must not be reproduced without express permission

Automatic enrolment journey20022002

20042004

20082008

20052005

20102010

20112011

20122012

201520152015 – 2017SMEs still to auto enrol

Pensions Commission launched

Pensions Act 2004creates The Pensions Regulator

Pensions Commission recommends automatic enrolment

Pensions Act 2008automatic enrolment established; The Pensions Regulator given role to maximise employer compliance; NEST created

Coalition government reviews automatic enrolment

July 2012 - duties apply and first employer enrols staff

Amendments to rules

5m+ employees automatically enrolled

This presentation remains the property of The Pensions Regulator. The contents of these slides must not be reproduced without express permission

Staging profile

This presentation remains the property of The Pensions Regulator. The contents of these slides must not be reproduced without express permission

Update on progress so far

• More than 46,000 employers have met their duties

• More than 5.2 million jobholders have been enrolled

• Approximately 75% of workforce now in pension schemes

• 99% of large employers have complied without us needing to use our powers

• Vast majority displaying a pro compliance behaviour

• Only used our powers on 1,962 occasions, including

– 367 Fixed Penalties Notices

– 4 Escalating penalties

This presentation remains the property of The Pensions Regulator. The contents of these slides must not be reproduced without express permission

Challenges to come

• 1.3 million small and micros (SMEs) still to enrol

• Why are they different?

400,000 small

900,000 micro

• Non-eligible jobholders

• 75% rely on advice

• Not familiar with pensions

• Behaviours

This presentation remains the property of The Pensions Regulator. The contents of these slides must not be reproduced without express permission

What we are doing about it (1)

SMEs

• All employers will receive a letter from The Pensions

Regulator by the summer of 2015 to inform them of their staging date.

• A step-by-step online guide

• We want employers to go online and find out what they need to do and by when – our landing page will direct them to useful “starter” information:

Staging date tool

Planning tool

Step by step guide

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What are we doing about it (2)

Business advisers

• More than 75% of small and micro employers expect to turn to

their advisers for help and support with their automatic enrolment duties.

• We want business advisers to go online and “get ready” for automatic enrolment. We want them to see what their clients will see. We will direct them to:

Sign up for regular ‘news by email’ updates

Online guide

Planning tool

This presentation remains the property of The Pensions Regulator. The contents of these slides must not be reproduced without express permission

Re-enrolment - what you have to do (1)

• All employers have to re-declare 3 years (+/- 3 mths) from 3rd anniversary of first declaration

• Two possible journeys – dependent on whether you have workers to re-enrol or not

• First step is to identify if there are staff to re-enrol:

workers who meet the criteria to be an eligible jobholder on the employer’s chosen re-enrolment date, and

who are not active members of a qualifying pension scheme and

who opted out or ceased membership more than 12 months before the automatic re-enrolment date

• Postponement cannot be used for re-enrolment

This presentation remains the property of The Pensions Regulator. The contents of these slides must not be reproduced without express permission

Re-enrolment – what you have to do (2)

Are there staff to enrol?

• If yes, choose a date to re-enrol and then re-declare within two months

• If no, re-declare on 3rd year declaration anniversary

• Employers have a duty to re-declare compliance with The Pensions Regulator

This presentation remains the property of The Pensions Regulator. The contents of these slides must not be reproduced without express permission

The journey from us

• Research indicates that large employers already have a good understanding of what they need to do

• Communications approach to employers and intermediaries in final stages of development

• White mail to senior person responsible (i.e. CEO) and emails to secondary contact (implementer)

• Additional support:

Essential Guide to Re-enrolment

AE checklist

web content

news by email

detailed guidance

Employers with re-enrolment date this year, will be written to twice before their window opens

This presentation remains the property of The Pensions Regulator. The contents of these slides must not be reproduced without express permission

Webpage

• http://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/employers/automatic-reenrolment.aspx

• Step-by-step online guide to automatic enrolment:

• The essential guide to automatic enrolment: www.tpr.gov.uk/ae-essential-guide

• Help your clients prepare for automatic enrolment: www.tpr.gov.uk/help-clients-prepare

• Staging date tool: www.tpr.gov.uk/staging-date

• Nominate a contact: www.tpr.gov.uk/nominate

• Planning tool: www.tpr.gov.uk/planner

• 6 month checklist: www.tpr.gov.uk/six-month

• Subscribe to our news by email: www.tpr.gov.uk/subscribe

• Latest research on automatic enrolment: www.tpr.gov.uk/research

Automatic enrolment – useful links

This presentation remains the property of The Pensions Regulator. The contents of these slides must not be reproduced without express permission