Pensions regulator fines more than triple in a year

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Pensions regulator fines more than triple in a year

The value of fines issued by The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has more than tripled in a year, reaching £42m in 2017/18.

This value, which is made up of fixed and escalating penalty notices, compares to £12.6m in the previous year, according to information published by TPR.

Year

Value of Fixed Penalty Notices

Value of Escalating Penalty Notices

2013-14

No fines issued

No fines issued

2014-15

£170,400

£22,500

2015-16

£857,200

£236,500

2016-17

£4,972,400

£7,633,100

2017-18

£11,546,400

£30,457,350

A fixed penalty notice of £400 is issued to an employer for failure to comply with a statutory notice or some specific employer duties.

An escalating penalty notice varies between £50 and £10,000 a day depending on size of the company, and is issued after if the employer still hasn’t complied.

The watchdog has been increasing the use of its powers due to the high volume of employers who reached their auto-enrolment staging date last autumn.

In the first quarter of 2018, for example, TPR’s issuance of fines makes up 20 per cent of all the powers used since the start of government’s pension policy on workplace pensions, in 2012.

The regulator said it was also working on being "clearer, quicker and tougher" regarding offending schemes and employers.

TPR announced last week it was introducing one-to-one supervision for the 25 biggest defined contribution (DB), defined benefit (DB) and public service pension schemes from next month.

The approach, which will involve regular ongoing contact with trustees or managers and sponsoring employers of pension schemes, will be rolled out to more than 60 schemes over the next year.

maria.espadinha@ft.com