TPR Publishes Fifth Automatic Enrolment Annual Commentary And Analysis Report

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) publishes their fifth report which highlights the success of automatic enrolment (AE) to date.

In the report, Darren Ryder, Director of Automatic Enrolment, comments on the success of the roll-out of AE through the staging approach and the challenges still to come.

This week’s report shows that, by the end of March this year, around seven million staff had been automatically enrolled by around 500,000 employers. In February 2018, all those with a pre-allocated staging date will have passed that date. From October 2017, anyone setting up a business and taking on staff will need to work AE into their plans.

The report contains upper and lower estimates of the numbers of new employers expected to have pension duties until the start of 2020. It shows how TPR predicts that around 73% of all small businesses, and nearly half of micro businesses, will have eligible staff.

The estimates demonstrate how automatic enrolment will continue to reverse the decline in workplace saving. In 2012, 55% of staff were saving into a workplace pension and by 2016 that figure had increased to 78%.

Interesting facts from the report:

In 2016-17 TPR issued:

• 12,181 fixed penalty notices
• 187 statutory demands for information
• 33,716 compliance notices
• 1,193 unpaid contributions notices
• 4 warrants
• 2,527 escalating penalty notices
• 260 statutory inspection notices

Total workers automatically enrolled:

• By 2013 – 1 million
• By 2014 3 million
• By 2015 5.2 million
• By 2016 6.1 million
• By 2017 7.7 million