Bowing to pressure from small
business groups, the British government has announced an extension
of the deadline for auto-enrolment of employees of businesses with
fewer than 50 employees.
Under the revised deadline,
small business must begin automatically enrolling their staff no
later than May 2015, instead of the previous timing of April
2014.
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Among those expressing
disappointment at the decision is Aviva’s director of workplace
savings, Paul Goodwin.
“We have always supported the
staged rollout of auto-enrolment and felt that a staging date for
most smaller employers of mid-2014 gave enough time to plan and
budget for a suitable scheme,” said Goodwin. “We felt the timetable
was achievable.”
Implementation of
auto-enrolment starts in October 2012 for employers with more than
120,000 employees, continuing for employers of between 50,000 and
119,999 a month later.
Following this, other
employers, with the exception now of those with fewer than 50
employees, will be phased into the regime on a monthly
basis.
