The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has warned employers not to neglect their workplace pension duties as they adjust to the ‘new normal’ following the coronavirus pandemic.
It’s latest compliance and enforcement bulletin, published in September 2021, shows that the overall use of TPR’s auto-enrolment powers has returned to pre-pandemic levels following necessary measures introduced last spring to support employers through the early months of the crisis. Between January and June 2021, these increased to 77,032 compared to 41,398 for July to December 2020. For comparison, the total use of powers in the six-month period before the pandemic (October 2019 to March 2020) was 73,164.
TPR’s accompanying press release emphasised that, although businesses will be going through changes, they must continue to assess staff, carry out re-enrolment duties and put new staff into a pension. TPR recognises that some sectors, such as businesses that historically employ part-time or seasonal workers with fluctuating earnings, are at greater risk of non-compliance, and is looking at how it can best support them to avoid this.
TPR will also be monitoring the ‘gig economy’, which it said was set to grow further as the UK emerges from the pandemic. Gig economy workers are now more likely to be eligible for workplace pension rights following the Supreme Court ruling on Uber employees. This determined these employees were not self-employed, but should be regarded as workers, bringing them within the scope of auto-enrolment.
Mel Charles, Director of Automatic Enrolment at TPR, warned that TPR treats ‘all employers the same and we will take enforcement action where appropriate to ensure all savers are protected, no matter what sector they work in’.
He also noted that employers must be prepared for the winding down of the government’s Covid-19 support for businesses: ‘We have been consistently clear since the start of the pandemic that, while the workplace has changed, workplace pensions duties have not. Automatic enrolment duties remain the same and must be fulfilled alongside all other requirements for running a business.’
If you would like to review your auto-enrolment compliance, PS Aspire offers a comprehensive audit process to help you gain comfort that you are meeting your duties. Please get in touch if you would like to know more.
We can also help if you have employees that would be considered as being gig economy workers. The pensions industry has been reacting to ensure that valued pension arrangements can be offered to these workers. Please get in touch if you would like to discuss this further.