How The Pensions Regulator has supported businesses through the coronavirus crisis
03 September 2020
The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has published its latest compliance and enforcement quarterly bulletin which discusses cases investigated by the regulator, and, subsequently, the powers that it has used. It is intended to assist employers, advisers, trustees and administrators to understand the work of the regulator and the types of intervention it performs.
In addition to this, a press release has been issued: ‘Employers continue to meet pension duties despite COVID-19 challenges’. This details how TPR has supported businesses through the turmoil caused by the outbreak of coronavirus. Although COVID-19 has dramatically changed the workplace and life, more generally, it has been noted that there has not been a significant increase in the number of missed pension contributions, and that most employers are continuing to meet their automatic enrolment duties. This is regardless of the fact that temporary flexibilities resulted in a fall of 55% in the use of TPR’s powers between April and June 2020, when compared to the preceding quarter. TPR used its powers for automatic enrolment breaches 15,733 times in the current quarter, as opposed to 35,174 times in the period between January and March 2020. Additionally, six times fewer Fixed Penalty Notices and five times less Escalating Penalty Notices were issued in this quarter, when compared to the previous one.
In order to assist employers through the challenges created by coronavirus, TPR introduced a number of flexibilities, which included allowing employers more time to work with their pension providers to ensure any missing pension contributions were updated, prior to taking any form of enforcement action.
TPR has, however, clarified, throughout the pandemic, that employers continue to have pension duties and that it is still monitoring compliance, acting accordingly where required. Employers who have committed serious breaches have continued to be targeted to ensure the protection of staff contributions.
As easements relating to COVID-19 are lifted, normal levels of enforcement activity are resuming. TPR is currently launching a new advertising campaign to remind employers of their continued pension duties towards their staff.
The information in this article is accurate at the time of publication. For all the latest information, news and resources on how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting payroll professions, visit our Coronavirus hub.