Overall awareness and understanding of auto-enrolment among UK employers has significantly increased since spring 2012 according to latest research from The Pensions Regulator.

A total of 602 interviews were conducted with private sector employers, 102 with public sector employers and 63 with the charity/voluntary sector. Statistics showed that a total of 98 per cent of large employers were aware of the changes in pensions law, an increase of 7 percentage points since spring 2012. Ninety-eight per cent of medium employers were aware of the changes linked to auto-enrolment (up 18 per cent) and 78 per cent understood them (up 28 per cent).

Concerning small employers, awareness of the changes had risen to 85 per cent, up 18 per cent, and to 65 per cent for micro-employers (up 34 per cent).

On a confidence level, 70 per cent of large employers remained “very confident” that they had done everything they possibly could by their staging date deadline. Eighty-four per cent of medium employers stated that they were on course to meet administration deadlines.

The Pensions Regulator’s director of employer compliance Charles Counsell said: “It’s good to see how confident those staging before 2015 are about coping with the new administrative process. But this latest research does show that whilst understanding of the key features of the reform is high, levels of detailed knowledge are lower.

“There is still a need for further work to ensure that employers their suppliers and their advisors access the information and guidance they will need to be ready, and compliant, on time.”

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