Joanna Hancock, design and deliver lead, employer compliance at TPR said: ” We have published guidance on basic solutions for payroll and plan to develop enhanced solutions, depending on what employers want. We know we have to help them through it and are making tools as simple as possible. We will look to the industry to spread the word.”
She said TPR’s research showed that 73 per cent of employers would turn to intermediaries for advice and although 87 per cent of large employers were aware of the key elements of auto enrolment, their knowledge fell in line with the size of their workforce.
The biggest challenge for employers was understanding what they need to do to provide end-to-end delivery.
When asked how the regulator would deal with compliance breaches, Hancock said: “We will work with employers to be compliant and contact those who failed to register on time.”
Under the landmark policy initiative, 1.3m employers will be subject to auto enrolment over a 48 month roll-out period, starting in October 2012, with 600 companies due to auto enrol workers that month and 45,000 by August 2014. Employers would be contacted 18 months before their staging date and again at 12 months and 3 months.
Hancock said TPR would soon publish the principles it believes underpin good DC schemes to help employers check whether existing schemes met the qualifying criteria. She denied any knowledge of whether the government was considering delaying the introduction of auto enrolment for SMEs by one year.
“The regulator’s role is to help employers comply with auto enrolment, not to formulate policy,” she said.
