Fail to enroll in pension scheme

[Meskio]

Hello,

I have been working for the same company for two years now, a small startup in England. Last week, I found out that my company didn't enroll me in the company's pension scheme after my three month probation period. They didn't ask me if I wanted to join so I never opted out.

After finding this out I sent and email asking an explanation. My boss replied explaining that as the company changed name right before I joined, all the employees, except me and two others, are enrolled in the old company's pension scheme, and that the new company doesn't have a pension scheme yet. He wanted to sort this out a while ago but as it's been such a busy time, he hasn't done it yet..I find this situation a bit dodgy as, as far as I know, this is compulsory for every company employing people. He said that he could create a pension scheme for the new company and we could join it. He said they would figure out what the contributions they will need to make on my behalf for the period between the end of my probation and now, also said that if I want he could pay directly into personal pensions but I don't have one.

In case that he is being honest and he is willing to pay, I guess I would need to pay too, but I don't have money and also find it very unfair that I need to pay as it should have been deducted out of my salary instead of doing things this way.

What are my rights in this case?
If he doesn't do as he says: what can I do?
Do I have to pay all my contribution in one go? can I claim this is my company's responsibility so they pay?
Is there anywhere where I can escalate this issue if things get nasty?

Many thanks

[echat11]

Hi Meskio

ULA Can you please take a look and advise, many thanks.

[ULA]

I presume that you meet the criteria of being auto enroled into a company pension.

I have a bit of a concern that even if your employer was going to get "around to sorting this out" he has not been making deductions from your salary of the appropriate amount.

I would suggest that you email him and ask him as a follow-up to your email exchange what he is doing to meet his statutory obliagation to have you enroled into a company pension scheme and what will happen about your back-dated contributions. You need to ask him the timescales he is going to get this resolved in.

What you may be able to do is find out the difference of what you should have been paying into your pension scheme for this period concerned and agree for a period of time, until this is made up, you will increase your percentage of salary from the 5% you currently have to pay to a higher percentage.

If this does not resolve itselt then you need to report your employer to the Pensions Regulator but hopefully it will not come to this.

If you have any further questions please come back to this thread.

[Meskio]

Hi ULA , thanks very much for your reply.

I think you are right, my employer has not been making deductions from my salary, at least my payslip doesn't have any deductions regarding my pension.

What would happens if I want to leave the company? My notice period is two months. What if my company can't/won't sort this situation out before I leave? Can I arrange with the Pensions Regulator (o whoever it is I'd need to speak with) for my payments to be done in a longer period than the time I'm still going to be working for this employer? What would happen if I leave the company and my current employer hasn't meet its obligations?

This is really unfair because I don't have the money (5% of my salary for two years) and my employer is the one who didn't do as the law says. I hope there's something I can do about it, it's not fair they can just pay without taking any responsibility of the consequences all this has for me and my finances.

Many thanks

[ULA]

You would need to report your employer to the Pensions Regulator who will then carry out an investigation. A link to where you can do this is below:

https://www.thepensionsregulator.gov...pension-duties

The conclusion of any investigation could be that they decide to take enforcement action, part of which would be an expectation for your employer to pay back any missed contributions to put you in the position you would have been in if they had complied on time. This would include backdating contributions to the day that you first should have been put into a scheme.

Typically, when backdating you would have to pay your own contribution, however as part of any enforcement action the Pensions Regulator may require that your employer pays your contributions as well.

[Meskio]

Hopefully all this will get sorted without having to get the Pensions Regulator involved..
All this information is very helpful, really appreciated!

[ULA]

Best of luck with trying to get it resolved directly with your employer. At least you know you have somewhere to report it to if necessary.

If you do have any further questions just come back to this thread.