Auto Enrolment Still Not On The Radar Of Many SMEs

An incredible 11% of small businesses in a recent survey were unaware of auto enrolment, while 8% planned to ignore it completely.

Recent research from Creative Auto Enrolment has shown that auto enrolment is still not a priority for SMEs even though their staging dates are creeping ever closer.

Incredibly, 8% of these businesses plan to completely ignore auto enrolment compliance, perhaps unaware that the fines can be in the region of hundreds of pounds per day past the deadline. Equally worrying is the fact that 11% of those surveyed weren’t aware of what auto enrolment is.

Of the 81% of employers that were aware of auto enrolment and their staging date, less than half of them (43%) knew the correct deadline.

All of this is surely worrying for the process of auto enrolment, particularly given the massive number of small businesses that there are in the UK – 1.3million to be exact. Auto enrolment has been generally considered a success so far, but that should be taken with a pinch of salt given that the companies which have staged so far have been larger organisations complete with HR departments.

Now that smaller organisations, even those with as few as two people, have to stage it will become trickier and trickier to make employers aware of the steps that must take.

The fact that so many employers either don’t know about the need to comply with auto enrolment, don’t want to or don’t have the correct information to is more than slightly concerning.

That is why there is evidence of these smaller businesses seeking advice from professionals such as DAM which can provide auto enrolment advice, with The Pensions Regulator suggesting that 7 out of 10 employers plan to seek advice from a professional.

It remains to be seen just how many small businesses will miss their deadline for auto enrolment compliance.

_{Photo credit goes to Official US Navy Imagery}