The number of unpaid contribution notices issued by The Pensions Regulator has increased by a 100 since the previous quarter of 2017, it has revealed.

In its latest Compliance and enforcement bulletin, the regulator said it has issued 753 unpaid contribution notices between July and September 2017, compared to 653 in the previous quarter. In this quarter the number of unpaid contribution notices issued accounted for 25 per cent of all auto-enrolment enforcement actions taken.

These notices require an employer to ensure all backdated contributions are paid within 28 days.

Commenting, TPR director of automatic enrolment Darren Ryder said that it is not enough to just comply with auto-enrolment laws by signing up to the staff scheme. He added that employers must also meet their duties to contribute into their employees’ pensions every month.

“Automatic enrolment has been hugely successful. There are now more than 800,000 compliant employers with more than 8.7 million workers in workplace pension schemes. The vast majority of employers are doing the right thing for their staff and are meeting their pension duties.

“Clearly 753 employers not paying contributions is a very small proportion of those that are compliant – less than 0.1 per cent. But every employer that is failing to make payments into their staff’s pension pot is one too many. We will not let employers get away with failing to meet their duties and we will take action.”

The bulletin also revealed there has been an almost 50 per cent increase in the number of compliance notices issued to employers compared to the last quarter for failing to meet automatic enrolment duties.

As well as publishing its quarterly bulletin, the regulator has also update its quarterly lists, which name both pension schemes and employers that it has taken action against. TPR’s lists include 169 employers taken to court for failing to pay an escalating penalty notice for not meeting their auto-enrolment duties. The fines total more than £1.25m.

Share Story: