But what worry's me FAR much more now is the topic of Auto-Enrollment. I went to a seminar organised by the local ICB chapter and it blew my mind the complexity of it and OUR responsibilities...
Has anyone else read up about it and has any thoughts on it?
I was reading something about it on Aweb the other day and the concensus was that its not our problem and we should not touch it with a bargepole as when the ambulance chasers and PPI brigade need a new bandwagon guess which one it will be? Yep, auto enrolement.
I had it open on a tab but had a bit of a firefox hickup and I've lost it. Hang on a sec, let me see whether I can find it again as it was a really good one (as most of those with Euan as a contributor seem to be as he seems to share a similar level of cynicism to myself).
yep, here we go (I remembered that it had the phrase ambulance chasers in it which made it easier to locate).
As always Euan seems to hit the nail on the head with the observation that it isn't his problem its his softwares. If the current software won't handle it then someone elses will.
So, anyway, what did the ICB say about it?
__________________
Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
It wasn't really the ICB, they had a IFA come in from a local practice to help us understand the implications of it.
Your right in what you say about the PPI etc as he said we CANNOT advise (neither should the employer) as this steps out of our remits straight away as we are not chartered advisor's on pensions. We do however, whether we are bookkeepers OR accountants have a responsibility of informing our clients of the impending s*** storm heading our way!
If employers don't comply then then can be fined from £50 PER DAY PER EMPLOYEE, to £2500 PDPE! And we the administrators of said schemes and management of payroll's can get fined up to £200 per day for non-compliance.
Come 2018 IFA's are going to be UBER busy, and employers (if they don't get their act together NOW) are going to have to pay a premium to get advise from IFA's only choosing to work with who ever has the bigger pockets! (might think about re-trading! lol)
I cant try to type up the power point presentation if you like Shaun to try to make it a laymans guide? But to be honest most of the info is already out there. There's a nifty little 3 minute video on youtube that sums it all up.... www.youtube.com/watch
Cheers Gary, I'll check both of those out in the morning.
The one that worries me is the number of people that say that they already have a pension but then you read stories about them having the wrong sorts of pensions!
I don't think that this will be the Christmas that financial advisors think that it will but I do think that we will see a lot more small businesses fold then restart with only temp / contract staff as having employee's is now too expensive and too much hassle (RTI / AE / SSP).
Have you noticed as well that this is being brought in at the same time that UK GAAP is being ditched and replaced with FRS 102 (Jan 2015, another huge change that people have their heads stuck in the sand in relation to) which for one will mean that the Pension liability sits of the balance sheet which will create a lot of volatility in the accounts.
Larger businesses that already have staff pensions in place and report under IFRS are not going to feel the anguish of this and I'm sure that is the model that the politicians looked at when coming up with this latest bright idea.
As the old chinese curse goes, we're living in interesting times!
p.s. micro businesses would report under FRSSE so wouldn't suffer with the same disclosures issue so FRS102 won't affect many of our clients. It was meant more as a general point about yet another change ontop of change rather than the sky is falling sort of comment.
-- Edited by Shamus on Tuesday 25th of March 2014 11:55:09 PM
__________________
Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
