The latest quarterly compliance and enforcement bulletin released by The Pension Regulator (TPR) contains an anonymous case study involving a large London based employer, that were fined £350,000 for failing to fully comply with their pension duties.
The employer, which employs 5,000 staff, received an Escalating Penalty Notice from TPR which the employer allowed to build up before complying with their pension duties, which included paying the correct contributions and re-enrolling staff into the company’s workplace pension scheme.
The employer has now paid over £100,00 of backdated pension contributions in addition to the fine which affected more than 2,000 of their staff, they have also re-enrolled more than 40 of the staff back into pension saving.
The size of the fine in this case is quite rare, however, this case is a clear warning to all employers, not to ignore penalty notices issued by TPR and to address any problems in a timely manner.
The TPR’s quarterly bulletin can be found here
TPR reports on the powers used by them between April to June 2019 and also explains that:
- Over 200,000 employers have met their re-enrolment responsibilities and many thousands of small employers are approaching the third anniversary of their staging date
- TPR’s relationship supervision teams are finding high standards and well-run schemes
- Seven master trust schemes were authorised by TPR in the quarter under section 13 of the Pensions Act 2017
- A Determinations Notice detailing the first time it used its power to appoint a trustee, primarily because of a lack of competence of the existing trustee board
