The Pension Regulator (TPR) has used its power of enforcement, but the focus remains on helping employers rather than penalising them. Advice from Hargreaves Lansdown.

The issue of employers failing to pay across contributions came to the fore.  An ‘unpaid contribution notice’ was issued 50 times during the quarter representing 70 percent of all instances since auto-enrolment commenced in 2012. TPR employer communications will now signpost employers to where they can find out more about pension providers. NEST, the ABI list of Auto-Enrolment providers and the NAPF website for ‘Pension Quality Mark’-ready schemes will all be included.

The regulator has also flagged where employer misunderstanding has caused non-compliance, allowing smaller employers to learn from the mistakes of others.

Problem areas include; workers on zero hour contracts, short-term workers for seasonal trades and what earnings and over what period require an employee to be enrolled.

This extra guidance seems extremely necessary as more than 20 percent of employers due to stage between now and November 2015 are yet to draw up their plan. Nathan Long – Head of Corporate Pension Research at Hargreaves Lansdown;

‘The big increase in unpaid contributions by employers is sure to be a result of smaller employers getting to grips with offering a workplace pension for the first time. The complexity with workplace pensions and new legislation was always going to incur teething problems. The Pension Regulator is really helping to ensure small employers can cope with the demands of auto-enrolment by signposting to available pensions and flagging some common traps to side step.’