Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they require employers and pension providers to report on errors in contributions paid; what penalties can be imposed if the wrong contributions are paid for workers in automatic enrolment; and what measures they plan to take to monitor the accuracy of pension contributions.

Automatic enrolment has been a great success, with over 9.9million employees enrolled and more than 1.3 million employers having met their duties to date. Government has put in place a robust, proportionate compliance framework. This is administered by The Pensions Regulator, and includes detailed regulatory guidance about how to comply with the law. An employer is required to select a qualifying pension scheme; enrol qualifying staff into that scheme, and deduct any contributions payable under automatic enrolment.

Employers are also required to pay those contributions across to their chosen pension provider by a set deadline. Although the deadlines for contribution payments vary, depending on the type of scheme being used, there is an overall legal deadline of the twenty-second day of the following month; which aligns with the HMRC deadline for paying tax and National Insurance.

With the introduction of the employer duties in 2012, there is a legal requirement on employers, trustees, managers and providers to keep certain records including the contributions payable in each relevant pay reference period by an employer to the scheme, and the amount payable. This includes contributions due on the employer’s behalf and deductions made from earnings.

The records an employer must keep will enable them to prove that they have complied with their duties and to help check or reconcile contributions made to the pension scheme.

Qualifying pension schemes for automatic enrolment are subject to the same regulatory framework as all trust-based workplace pension schemes, also overseen by The Pensions Regulator. The Regulator has published codes of practice on its website setting out how trustees of defined contribution pension schemes and managers of personal pension schemes should monitor the payment of contributions; provide information to help members check their contributions; and report material payment failures to the Regulator.