Every few months the pension regulator releases a document. Now whilst I appreciate the not so snappily titled “Compliance and Enforcement quarterly bulletin” may not be at the top of everyones reading list it does make for a fascinating read if you’re engaged in helping employers comply with automatic enrolment.

Every time this document is released it reveals some interesting trends.

The first thing it shows is that, increasingly, the pension regulator is taking a lot more action on employers who don’t comply with automatic enrolment..

The latest report looks at the period from the start of July to the end of September 2016.

In this 3 month period the pensions regulator used their various powers (which includes legal notices, fines and various other enforcement measures) a grand total of 19,825 times.

In total enforcement actions since automatic enrolment came into law and started to impact employers back in 2012 have been used 34,825 times.

This means that there have been as many enforcement actions taken against employers in the past three months than in the other four and a bit years automatic enrolment has applied to employers.

On face value that seems like a massive spike in non compliance but actually it reflects the fact that the first large spike of employers had to comply at the start of this year.

These employers would have had a few months to complete their declarations of compliance (or not) and therefore it’s clear that although the spike of non compliance is concerning it is reflective of the fact that there has been a recent spike in employers needing to comply.

This brings me onto my second point…most employers seem to be complying successfully.

So far according to the pension minister there have been 250,000 + firms who have had to comply. Currently there have been 26,000 compliance notices issued.

Whilst over just over 10% non compliance is still a relatively large percentage and the reality is that we don’t know how many firms have said they have complied but missed certain parts of the process and the fact that we still have a million plus employers yet to comply on the whole employers have complied without a great deal of fuss.

However one other interesting thing in the report is clear…

The pensions regulator isn’t too keen on excuses. In the latest copy of the compliance and enforcement report it has the following statement…

“The following do not amount to a reasonable excuse, whether for a failure to file a tax return or a failure to complete the declaration of compliance:

– you relied on someone else and they let you down

– you found the online system too difficult to use

– you didn’t get a reminder

– you made a mistake

– you or a member of staff were ill.”

So, whilst there has been a spike in automatic enrolment compliance but overall compliance broadly speaking remains pretty high the message from the pension regulator remains clear…

If employers don’t comply the pensions regulator isn’t afraid to take action.

If you need some help to ensure your businesses or your clients businesses can comply successfully feel free to call us on 01708 606 202, you can also email us at tj@aeinabox.co.uk.