The head of benefits strategy for national pensions advisory firm Jelf Employee Benefits, said that non-compliance numbers were set to rise, as employers failed to understand or implement the rules on AE.
He said: “At first glance it appears that only relatively low numbers of employers are failing to comply with the new legislation. But scratch the surface of this story and you will see a potentially more concerning image.
“The next few months will see a further 27,000 employers staging, and many of these organisations will have no such luxury of resource and advice to help them comply.
“As a result it is likely that there will be a marked increase in the numbers failing to adequately meet the new duties.”
He also said that any future AE breaches were likely to be subject to increased media scrutiny – an “unwelcome spotlight” that organisations “would be keen to avoid”.
Mr Herbert’s comments came a week after the The Pension Regulator admitted there had already been 134 breaches of AE duties arising from the first 8,800 employers who had reached staging date. It had conducted 590 investigations overall.
Background
Last week, national pensions advisory firm Johnson Fleming launched a managed auto-enrolment service at Villa Park to help smaller employers through the administrative duties of auto-enrolment.
Simon Fletcher, chief executive of the firm, said the solution would allow advisers “to maintain the relationship and consultancy aspect of auto-enrolment, but also focus on their day job, rather than becoming consumed by the administrative tasks the legislation brings.”