17th March 2015

AE INDUSTRY LIAISON INTERMEDIARIES UPDATE - March 2015

If there are any particular topics you would like to hear about, your feedback would be welcome. Please feel free to circulate this email to appropriate colleagues and any third party contacts and introducers.

1. The essential guide for people who employ their own care and support.
2. What a company should do if they have no workers on their staging date.
3. Cyclical and immediate re-enrolment.
4. Our new advertising campaign begins.
5. Ask the regulator – Q&A on LinkedIn 16^th March. Register.

1. The essential guide for people who employ their own care and support.

As part of TPR’s ongoing support to employers we have produced a further Essential Guide to give clarity to those that employ carers and support. The document provides information on whether the legislation applies to those affected and also the tasks that they will need to carry out in order to fulfil their duties.  The guide can be found by following the link below:

www.tpr.gov.uk/docs/The_essential_guide_for_people_who_employ_their_own_care_and_support.pdf

2. What a company should do if they have no workers on their staging date.

For employers with no workers at their staging date, if they have received a letter from the Regulator notifying them of their staging date, the employer should send an email to customersupport@autoenrol.tpr.gov.uk stating the following:

1.  I confirm that [company name] is a not an employer for the purposes of automatic enrolment for the following reason – (select one option from the list below):

a)    there is only one director and there are no other staff working for the company

b)    the only people working for the company are directors and none of them has an employment contract

c)    the only people working for the company are directors and only one of them has an employment contract

d)    if there is some other reason why you believe you do not have any automatic enrolment duties (please provide a brief explanation)

2.  The letter code for the company is: [The letter code is a 10 digit number which can be found on all letters sent from The Pensions Regulator]

3.  The PAYE scheme(s) reference is:

4.  The companies house number (where applicable):

5.  The name, email address, postal address and telephone number of the contact at the company is:

Once this has been received our customer support team will update our records to reflect that this is not an employer and we will stop any further communications to them.

3.   Cyclical and immediate re-enrolment.

This year employers that staged in 2012 will reach their cyclical re-enrolment date. We have produced a set of slides to help explain both cyclical and immediate re-enrolment and these are attached to this email.

You may also like to refer to the re-enrolment detailed guidance, link below.

www.tpr.gov.uk/docs/detailed-guidance-11.pdf

4.   Our new advertising campaign begins.

Monday 2 March saw the launch of our latest advertising campaign - targeting employers and business advisers.

Background to campaign

-          Over the coming months, more than 1.3 million employers will receive a letter from The Pensions Regulator informing them of their legal duties and when they apply.

-          Research indicates that small and micro employers are likely to have a lower level of awareness and understanding of AE than that of medium and large employers, and also that a significant number of them will look to their business advisers for help and support.

Campaign summary – 02/03 to 29/03

-          Business adviser and employer campaigns will run across digital and mobile channels and the employer campaign will also run across radio (LBC, Talksport, XFM, Smooth Radio, Total Absolute Radio, Jazz FM, & Gold Classic FM and Bauer).

-          Business adviser call to action: Get ready to help your clients.URL: http://tinyurl.com/BusinessAdvisersGetReady

-          Employer call to action: Act now. Click here. URL: http://tinyurl.com/EmployersActNow

5.    Ask the regulator – Payroll Q&A on LinkedIn 16^th March.

Do you have any questions that you’d like to ask which focus on the role payroll plays within automatic enrolment? Experts from The Pensions Regulator will be online and ready to answer your questions on Monday 16^th March from 3-4pm. In order to participate, you will need to register to join the Regulator’s LinkedIn group prior to the Q&A and post a question in the same way as you would start a discussion.

Auto-Enrolment, Business Development