Children’s nursery fined £8,200 for non-compliance with automatic-enrolment legislation
21 November 2019
When sentenced at Brighton Magistrates’ Court on 20 November 2019, the Tiny Hearts Day Nursery was ordered to pay £8,200 for non-compliance in relation to their automatic-enrolment duties.
As previously reported in the CIPP’s News Online, the pre-school nursery and its main director, Christine Moore, failed to enrol 13 staff into a pension scheme but Moore made a false declaration to the regulator claiming that they had. In actuality, a pension scheme had been set up but no staff had actually been placed into it, which was discovered after an alert from a whistle-blower and an investigation by TPR.
The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has confirmed that Judge Szagun delivered the charge, and that Mersey-side based Sulouste Ltd, who trade as the Tiny Hearts Day Nursery, was fined £4,915 for the failure, plus a victim’s surcharge of £170 and prosecution costs of £2,200. Miss Moore was ordered to pay £833 with an additional £83 victim’s surcharge.
TPR’s Director of Automatic Enrolment, Darren Ryder commented
“This outcome is another clear warning to employers that they must comply with their automatic enrolment duties and ensure staff receive the pension they are entitled to.
While the vast majority of employers do the right thing, we will take action against the small number that flout the law and risk the retirements of savers.”
The result demonstrates that non-compliance with auto-enrolment legislation will result in strict punishment and have severe consequences for businesses who do not act in accordance with the law.
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