Pensions Regulator to issue guidance ahead of 1,000 auto-enrolment launches
19 November 2013
The Pensions Regulator has been focusing on the needs of the recruitment sector ahead of over 1,000 recruiters beginning to provide pensions auto-enrolment between April and July of next year.
Tue, 19 Nov 2013The Pensions Regulator has been focusing on the needs of the recruitment sector ahead of over 1,000 recruiters beginning to provide pensions auto-enrolment between April and July of next year.
The organisation will be releasing compliance guidance specifically tailored for the recruitment sector in due course.
The regulator says it has begun working more closely with different sectors in a more specialist manner. Auto-enrolment ‘staging’ dates began for the UK’s biggest employers last October, with companies obliged to stage based upon their size, meaning more and more smaller employers need to begin preparing.
An initial series of “in-depth fact finding visits to businesses sectors that may face automatic enrolment compliance challenges” have focused upon identifying possible breaches, ensuring compliance, learning lessons and sharing good practice among the industry.
The Pensions Regulator has been working alongside the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC), whose head of policy Kate Shoesmith says she is pleased that the regulator “recognises the additional barriers that recruiters face”.
“The process does not lend itself easily to an atypical workforce,” such as those at recruitment firms who have contractor staff supplied to clients on their books, she adds.
The regulator also urges recruiters and employers of all types to check their staging date, noting that the schedule for staging is based upon how many staff firms had on 1 April 2012, not how many they have now or will have when staging.
The organisation will be releasing compliance guidance specifically tailored for the recruitment sector in due course.
The regulator says it has begun working more closely with different sectors in a more specialist manner. Auto-enrolment ‘staging’ dates began for the UK’s biggest employers last October, with companies obliged to stage based upon their size, meaning more and more smaller employers need to begin preparing.
An initial series of “in-depth fact finding visits to businesses sectors that may face automatic enrolment compliance challenges” have focused upon identifying possible breaches, ensuring compliance, learning lessons and sharing good practice among the industry.
The Pensions Regulator has been working alongside the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC), whose head of policy Kate Shoesmith says she is pleased that the regulator “recognises the additional barriers that recruiters face”.
“The process does not lend itself easily to an atypical workforce,” such as those at recruitment firms who have contractor staff supplied to clients on their books, she adds.
The regulator also urges recruiters and employers of all types to check their staging date, noting that the schedule for staging is based upon how many staff firms had on 1 April 2012, not how many they have now or will have when staging.
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