Steve Webb, Minister for pensions, addresses the CIPP's friends of automatic enrolment meeting

20 June 2014

There to discuss the current status of AE and the pensions market, Steve Webb’s attendance was another exciting boost to the newly established group.

The Friends of AE is the CIPP’s clarion call to all the payroll, pensions, software and advisory organisations; plus all the IFA’s, EBC’s, employer groups and professional associations, to work together so that employers have a better chance of complying with their employer duties.

Lindsey Melvin, CEO at the CIPP, commented: “Considering Friend of AE was only established in February of this year, we have been overwhelmed by the level of support this initiative has received within the industry. Today’s additional support of Steve Webb is another great example of this and we are grateful for his time in helping us further raise the profile of our cause.”

Simon Leyland, Business Development Director from LEBC, added: “This initiative is gaining significant momentum and to have the Pensions Minister in attendance, just shows how important this cross-industry collaboration has become.”

The Friends of AE now has over 220 members from all sectors involved in the AE market. The CIPP is committed to working together to help employers cope with the many operational challenges they face. Examples of this include the work on data standardisation, the CIPP Guide to Data Readiness, a directory on who does what in the AE market and we are even working on a Capacity Crunch early warning system.

Following the success of the London meetings, moving forward Friend of AE will also be operating in Belfast, Glasgow, Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Cardiff, Bristol, Southampton, and now Nottingham and Brighton as well; with further locations to be announced if the demand is there.

The objectives of Friends of AE meetings are:-

  • To share knowledge and to share best practice in relation to automatic enrolment
  • To encourage collaboration amongst service providers wherever possible
  • To help employers comply with their employer duties pre and post staging
  • To do whatever is possible to help tackle “capacity crunch” challenges

Anyone can attend meetings * on a no-cost basis  and those that want can volunteer to become a Regional
Co-Chair for their area; most Co-Chair vacancies have been taken but still a few need to be filled.

* places must be booked in advance by emailing Andy Agathangelou


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