New client- missed pension staging date

How to tidy this new client up

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I met with a prospective new client last week [2 separate employers]. Only payroll services needed. 4 employees. They confirmed they have not auto-enrolled because they thought their staging date was April or May 2017. I have checked and its June 2016 and Feb 2017.

If I want to take on the client and tidy them up what do people suggest is the best way to do this? Will they be subject to late enrolment charges/fees once i make the pension regulator aware that they have missed the staging dates?

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By Jo Nokes
28th Mar 2017 06:48

Well, it's entirely possible that the client will face a fine for late filing of the compliance declaration, but I don't think there's an alternative to getting on with it. Have they received letters from the Pension Regulator? I suggest you send an email to the PR, apologising for the delay and making it clear that the situation is being corrected asap. NEST is simple to set up, I have used this with MS and the monthly filing is easy

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RLI
By lionofludesch
28th Mar 2017 09:22

He's still in time to make the declaration and he's only a month behind with collecting contributions for the Feb 2017 staging.

Answer is stage from 1 Feb, pay the contributions over. If he wants, he can collect the back contributions for February (and March if employees are paid weekly) but given the amounts, he may just want to write it off to experience.

The June one is more problematical - worth asking why he didn't react to any of the many letters he would have received.

I did one of these last December, should have staged in October. There were no problems using NEST. The key point is that the employees should be put in the same position as they would have been had the scheme been set up on time.

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Replying to lionofludesch:
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By Euan MacLennan
28th Mar 2017 10:31

lionofludesch wrote:

He's still in time to make the declaration and he's only a month behind with collecting contributions for the Feb 2017 staging.

He can postpone assessment for up to 3 months, so he does not actually need to enrol anyone on that payroll until 1st May 2017. He is a month late only in sending the employees the "you have been postponed" letter.

Alos, don't forget that almost all directors are excluded from the pension requirements.

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By Mr_awol
28th Mar 2017 09:43

As far as I can tell when I looked into this for one of mine, missing your staging date doesn't incur a fine - which only gets levied if you get a notice of non compliance and ignore it.

I'd suggest you double check the above and if I'm correct (I don't get involved in stuff like payroll unless the manager of that department gets stuck and needs advice) then all you need to do is start the process as soon as possible. I wouldn't be suggesting anything gets backdated unless it absolutely has to.

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