A new report from the Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals (CIPP) has revealed that 40% of employers are looking at their payroll department to take the lead for implementing pension automatic enrolment legislation, followed by the HR department (29%) and the pension provider / department (13%).
The CIPP research paper to understand business readiness for automatic enrolment includes responses and comments from 267 participants, from a wide range of sectors and consists of employers, pension providers, payroll software developers and those who provide payroll services to employers.
Other key findings show that more than two-thirds (69%) of employers feel that HR will oversee the communications on automatic enrolment to their workers, followed by the payroll department (35%) and the pension provider / department (26%). Interestingly, half (50%) of employers have set up a specific project team to handle automatic enrolment within their organisations.
Reassuringly, the report has also indicated that the majority of organisations are well into their preparations for automatic enrolment. Three-quarters (74%) of employers said they have carried out a workforce assessment and recorded the number of workers in their PAYE schemes as of 1 April 2012 and the same number (74%) do not intend to amend their staging date. Half (50%) of businesses already have a qualifying pension scheme in place; with a further third (35%) needing to make modifications to their current scheme to ensure it meets the qualifying criteria. Furthermore, two-thirds (66%) of employers understand their current scheme participation.
Karen Thomson FCIPP MSc, Associate Director of Policy, Research and Strategic Visibility at the CIPP, said: “As we all know, 2012 is a big year for the payroll and pension industry, with the pilot scheme in readiness for the introduction of real time information (RTI) as a statutory requirement from April 2013, as well as automatic enrolment commencing for the largest of employers in the next few months.
“Our research has indicated that the onus for implementation is on the payroll department and we are confident that the majority of payroll and pension professionals are fully aware of their responsibilities surrounding automatic enrolment and are making significant headway in their preparations.
“However, nearly a third (33%) of employers have admitted that they are not aware of automatic enrolment legislation, which means that a lot of work has to be undertaken by payroll and pension departments as well as payroll service and software providers to educate businesses not only on the regulations but what needs to be done in order to be compliant.
“The Chartered Institute continues to strive to be an important resource for payroll and pension professionals by offering the most up-to-date and relevant information, guidance and tools that are much needed when dealing with the complexities of automatic enrolment.”
The CIPP has today (9 July 2012) launched a dedicated helpline to deal with automatic enrolment enquiries. This will be available to all CIPP members, visit our website for more information.