Over half a million UK employers have now completed their auto-enrolment duties, according to new figures released by The Pensions Regulator (TPR) today.

The regulator's most recent declaration of compliance report states that as of 31 March 2017, 503,178 UK employers had completed their workplace pension duties, equating to over 7.6 million workers now saving for their retirement through an occupational pension.

It has been noted that in the first three months of this year alone, 136,000 small and micro employers fulfilled their auto-enrolment requirements, an average of one every 57 seconds.

In addition to those that have already met their duties in 2017, a further 600,000 have responsibilities this year.

Overall, 1.3 million to 1.4 million UK employers have to auto-enrol their businesses, 500,000 have now achieved this.

Pensions Minister Richard Harrington commented: “These impressive new figures show that by setting up a workplace pension, employers are getting their staff on the road to a financially secure retirement.

“But there are nearly a million employers out there who still need to enrol their staff and I would encourage them to take up the support on offer from The Pensions Regulator. Pensions can seem daunting, but there is a wealth of information available to help you get set up.”

TPR's executive director of automatic enrolment, Charles Counsell, added: “We expected that the number of employers becoming compliant would increase dramatically this year and I’m delighted that we’ve reached the 500,000 mark.Hundreds of thousands more employers are due to follow suit over the coming months and it is vital that they act early and do not leave themselves open to being fined.

“Some employers may see becoming compliant as a challenge but we have written to each of them and are here to help them to meet their responsibilities. I would urge every employer to check today that they know what they need to do and when they
need to do it. Now is the time to seek help if you need it.”

All employers can use the Duties Checker on TPR's website to understand what is required of them and their next steps in the auto-enrolment process.

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