Extra 500,000 businesses set to stage following revision

With recent increases in the amount of business start-ups and a lower number of closures than expected, The Pensions Regulator (TPR) have found that there will be around 500,000 more businesses staging than initially thought.

The new figures published last week in TPR’s third annual auto enrolment commentary and analysis show that there is now a total of 1.8 million businesses needing to auto enrol employees into workplace pensions over the next three years, greater than the originally thought 1.3million.

The executive director of automatic enrolment Charles Counsell said:

“Automatic enrolment has had a dramatic impact on the number of people saving for retirement in the UK – but the new analysis we’ve published today demonstrates that significant challenges still lie ahead.

As a result of more new employers starting up and fewer going out of business, the pensions sector will need to plan for larger numbers reaching the start of their duties. Thanks to automatic enrolment, saving for retirement is becoming the norm and we know most employers want to do the right thing by their staff.”

These findings further magnify the influence that the capacity crunch will have in the next few years on small businesses. With more and more businesses staging each month, the squeeze on resources for auto enrolment such as pension providers and support will ultimately become more difficult to attain.