EXCLUSIVE: Almost a third (32%) of respondents have no intention of complying with auto-enrolment legislation, according to research by pensions consultancy Secondsight.
The Secondsight Auto-enrolment survey report, which was conducted by its parent company Foster Denovo, questioned 327 respondents which are predominantly small and medium-sized employers (SMEs).
The research also found:
- 66% of respondents had little or no knowledge of auto-enrolment legislation.
- 33% of respondents will comply with auto-enrolment without external help.
- 27% of respondents intend to spend one day or less in management time complying with auto-enrolment.
Matthew Mitten (pictured), equity partner at Secondsight, said: “Our report shows that pensions still don’t feature highly on the business priority list, and this is despite the investment being made in marketing around auto-enrolment.
“We found the ‘willful non-compliance’ statistic the most surprising to come out of the research; the figure is much higher than I would have expected.
“I suspect that a large part of this is down to organisations not currently putting auto-enrolment onto their radar. Also, there is a real lack of awareness around the penalties for non-compliance.
“Employers are grossly underestimating the complexity and length of time required to become auto-enrolment compliant.
“Resources are already under strain, and I’d advise those organisations now thinking about auto-enrolment to review how they intend to manage the work involved.”
Secondsight will exhibit at Employee Benefits Live on 25 and 26 September at National Hall, Olympia.