It has long been recognised that most people are not saving enough for retirement and as a result may not be able to afford to live comfortably in their retirement on just the state pension. As people are also living longer, there is increasing strain on the State benefits system, so private pension provision is becoming increasingly important.What are the reforms?

What happens if I don^t comply?

There are certain legal duties you must meet for automatic enrolment. If you don’t comply with your duties, The Pensions Regulator may take enforcement action.

• You, the employer, are responsible for meeting your legal duties for automatic enrolment.
• If you don’t comply, you may face enforcement action including compliance notices, and penalty notices (fines).
• If you comply late, you are expected to pay back any missed contributions to put staff in the position they would have been in if you had complied on time; this would include backdating contributions to your staging date.
• If you don’t pay your fine, this can be recovered through the courts.

If you are late meeting your duties

If you are late complying or think you might be, you should tell The Pensions Regulator about it straight away.
You should aim to put all staff back in the position they would have been in if you had complied on time.

For example, if you didn’t put a member of staff into a pension scheme on your staging date when you should’ve done, you will need to:

• put them into a pension scheme and treat your staging date as their automatic enrolment date
• backdate contributions so that your member of staff does not lose out
• give your staff member the option to pay their own backdated contributions - they can choose whether or not they want to do this.

How The Pensions Regulator can investigate non-compliance?

The Pensions Regulator has a range of powers for use in our non-compliance investigations.

As well as requesting information from employers voluntarily, they are able to issue formal notices asking for information and are able to carry out inspections at the employer^s premises. They will use the courts to carry out investigations where necessary.

Investigations are conducted to the highest standards, ensuring they regulate with fairness, transparency and consistency.

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