TPR: We do not care what your name is and neither does the law

Yet a trend we are investigating involves employers trying to dodge their workplace pension responsibilities by changing their name. They could be trying to avoid paying the pension contributions of their staff, and we will not let them get away with that.

We are not a paper tiger. We have the means to identify non-compliant employers and the will to act against them

There is nothing wrong with genuine rebranding. Such rebranding has no impact on an employer’s auto-enrolment duties – it remains the same entity and would be liable for action against it if there was an attempt to deny staff the pensions they are entitled to. 

Employers should not think they can pull the wool over our eyes – and advisers need to be alert as well.

Advisers must be on guard

Advisers have a duty to report to us if employers they are working with are breaking the auto-enrolment laws. They also have to be able to show they have not been involved in the offence. We know of advisers that have assisted employers to breach the regulations. They have not just encouraged employers to break the law, they have facilitated the offence – getting their hands in the dirt themselves.

A glance back at some of our recent prosecutions will show that we are not scared to pursue such third parties to justice, but we are always keen to make it easy for advisers to help employers to comply with the law. 

We need advisers to ensure employers continue to stay on top of their duties, for instance if they are going through re-enrolment or taking on seasonal workers. They must continue to check whether any of their workers should be put into a pension scheme – or put back into one if they have previously opted out – and they have to re-declare their compliance. We have created a new re-enrolment duties tool on our website to help advisers quickly work out what their clients must do.

We have sources of information coming to us, such as via HMRC and whistle-blowing workers, that readily identify those who are operating outside the law. Employers themselves even come to us to report that they think they might have broken the law, albeit unwittingly.

Ignorance is not bliss

Few employers that we visit are genuinely anti auto-enrolment, but some claim they were ignorant of the law or have been let down by their advisers. 

The message advisers should give to their clients is that we will visit non-compliant employers whoever they are, wherever they are. We go everywhere and anywhere to inspect employers we suspect of non-compliance – we have visited Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, all major cities and all regions of England in the past 12 months. 

We are not a paper tiger. We have the means to identify non-compliant employers and the will to act against them. Advisers would do well to give the following advice to their clients:

• If you stick your head in the sand about your duties and think that is an excuse, it is not. 

• If you think becoming compliant will mean any fines that you have been issued with will go away, they will not.

• If you think paying your fine means you do not have to become compliant, it does not.

Our intention is always to get employers to comply with the law. If they are not compliant they should be prepared for a knock at the door – and their adviser might get one too. 

Darren Ryder is director of automatic enrolment at the Pensions Regulator