Member Article

Review your Payroll procedures ensuring Automatic Enrolment compliance

~~Haines Watts Liverpool is advising small employers across the North West to review their payroll procedures to ensure they comply with Automatic Enrolment pension obligations

Tax Manager of the Liverpool office, Gary Loughlin, is encouraging small employers to undertake a review of their payroll procedures to ensure that they understand the changes in law, on workplace pensions. Under the changes introduced by the Pensions Act 2008, every employer with at least one member of staff now has new duties; these include enrolling staff members who are eligible, into a workplace pension scheme and contributing towards it. This is called ‘automatic enrolment’, because it is automatic for staff – they don’t have to do anything to be enrolled into a pension scheme. Since the introduction of automatic enrolment, five and a half million employees have already been put into a scheme by the UK’s large and medium employers, but the vast majority of small employers have yet to reach the date their automatic enrolment duties start – this is called their staging date.

During 2016, around half a million small and micro employers will reach their staging date. For many of these employers, meeting their new workplace pension duties represents a cultural change – it will be the first time they have provided a pension for their staff. Employers can choose to implement automatic enrolment themselves, but many will decide to ask their accountant or payroll provider to help them with some or all of their duties. Gary said “We at Haines Watts understand that many small employers are concerned about what they need to do to in order to comply with the law. We can help employers avoid non-compliance by assisting with issues that may arise from the introduction of auto-Enrolment, as well as general payroll matters”.

Haines Watts is an award-winning, fresh thinking accountancy firm that specialises in advising and supporting business owners. Combining industry expertise and knowledge, the Haines Watts Group works with more than 35,000 companies across the UK. Haines Watts believe in translating technical knowledge into sound commercial advice and acts as a sounding board to help and support ideas and help achieve goals.

Gary added “Employers, who need to set up a pension scheme, should have one in place at least six months before their staging date. The scheme selected needs to be suitable for automatic enrolment and suitable for their employees. Due to the penalties that can arise for non-compliance, I would stress the importance that it is essential for employers to understand exactly what is required of them”.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Haines Watts Liverpool Limited .