ABI response to DWP announcement of pensions delay for small businesses

Today the DWP confirmed during parliamentary questions that small businesses will not have to start automatically enrolling their employees into a pension until the start of the next parliament.

Maggie Craig, Director of Life and Savings at the ABI said:

“We have always strongly backed automatic enrolment as a good way to get people saving and our view on that remains unchanged. It is imperative that we help employees with no pension start saving as soon as we possibly can. We are pleased that the Government still plans to start automatically enrolling employees in 2012. We do realise that the UK is facing huge economic challenges and that small businesses are up against it. We support the Government’s efforts to alleviate some of this burden by allowing more time for the economy to recover before smaller companies start enrolling their employees into a pension.

However it will be very important that this is not allowed to slip and slip. We need to keep up the momentum to address the UK’s savings crisis. We need a firm timetable so that employers are clear what is expected of them and the millions of workers in the UK without a pension can start saving for their retirement.”

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