CIPP survey on the proposed technical changes to automatic enrolment

18 December 2014

The CIPP are launching a survey to seek views on ideas to simplify auto enrolment. Your responses will inform the CIPP response to the recently issued DWP consultation document.

Even before automatic enrolment was introduced back in 2012, there were several areas of legislation which made life very complicated for employers trying to comply with their automatic enrolment obligations. Since then the CIPP, along with other stakeholders, has been campaigning for simplification in several areas.

Although the automatic enrolment process has evolved in some areas, such as simplifying the pay reference periods, there are still issues which cause significant administrative burdens. The DWP has recently issued a consultation document which is looking to simplify automatic enrolment in three key areas:

· Simplify the communication requirements for employers;

· Create exceptions to the employer duties; and

· Introduce an alternative quality requirement for defined benefit (DB) schemes.

Unfortunately the timescale for responding to this consultation is very short and the document itself is very long. To make it easier for members to respond, especially over the busy Christmas period, the CIPP policy team has, therefore, created a survey which primarily focuses on the areas of the consultation document which have most impact on employers, namely reducing the amount of letters needed during the automatic enrolment process, and removing the need to automatically enrol those employees who we know will be adversely affected by membership of a pension scheme, such as those who have accrued pension savings above the lifetime allowance. The majority of questions are multiple choice so the survey should not take more than 15 minutes to complete.

We would be very grateful if you could spare some time to complete this survey which closes on 7 January 2015. Thank you very much for your help.