Small businesses are set to feel the effect of auto-enrolment, which could even see some going out of business, Matthew Mitten has warned.
The director of Enrolsme, a new online auto-enrolment (AE) service from national advisory firm Foster Denovo, said the government’s push to get all people auto-enrolled has failed to consider the problems some employers have had when recovering from the financial crisis.
He said.“This was certainly not the goal of the legislation. These are tricky times for small business in the UK and more should be done to help support them.”
Research conducted by Foster Denovo revealed that, with the recent increase in the minimum wage, smaller businesses found themselves under mounting pressure to meet legislation at a time when they needed a helping hand.
Some 21 per cent of companies, with one to five employees, think AE could even put them out of business. As a result, 36 per cent claimed they would need to increase the cost of their services to accommodate the legislation.
Foster Denovo Enrolsme is an appointed representative of Foster Denovo, which is authorised and regulated by the FCA.
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Alan Ritchie, head of employer and trustee proposition at Standard Life, said “Given the huge wave of small businesses about to stage, this research shows how important it is to support small businesses through AE.”
