Accordingly, I visited the site as I needed some specific information. Well I can only say that the personnel at Nest display what I always suspected, a comprehensive disjoint from reality.
The site is a veritable Sargasso Sea of waffle. Where are the facts and figures? The basic sensible detail laid out in a straightforward way? They have a section for advisers, but do they not realise we have not only left the kindergarten but now have to be QCF level four educated? So how about treating us as such?
I had to send them an email. Here is a taster of the unanswered points:
1. If you are over the £33,540 earnings limit does that exempt you from Nest?
2. If you are currently contributing (on your own or with your employer) in excess of £4200 are you exempt?
3. If a firm has employees with their own individual personal pensions to which they (and sometimes the firm) are contributing (under £4200 yearly), must these be stopped and a Nest scheme started instead? A firm would be in breach if they advised the employee to opt out so that they could continue with their own arrangement.
4. Some pension providers do not have the employer reporting facility. So what happens in this case?
5. How often must a firm provide payroll information and is this mandatory if everyone within the firm contributes more than £4200? Must they include those earning over £33,540?
Bear in mind that Nest starts next year. Employers need to know all the details now as it may well have a bearing on their plans and cashflow - or do not the bureaucrats care about that?
Harry Katz
Principal
Norwest Consultants
Middlesex
Nest response:
As your readers will know, the Pensions Act 2008 establishes new duties on employers which start to be introduced from 2012.
For information about automatic enrolment, including the rules that will apply, visit the DWP’s website at: www.dwp.gov.uk/policy/pensions-reform/workplace-pension-reforms.
For information about when the duties will affect employers, visit the Pensions Regulator’s website at: www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/pensions-reform/staging-and-phasing.aspx. For information about Nest, your readers should visit Nest Corporation’s website: www.nestpensions.org.uk (Beware of imitations).
An updated website for Nest will be live later this year and it will be further developed as the scheme goes live.
There will be different sections for employers, members and advisers.
Heather Tilston
Head of media and PR
