Employee benefit consultancy Vested has joined forces with Husky, a specialist in AE administration, to provide employers with a comprehensive group pensions advisory and administration solution.
Vested, part of the Embark Group, says this partnership aims to address the number of employers that aren’t fully compliant with their auto-enrolment responsibilities and are relying on aged technology and processes.
In recent years there has been concern from industry experts that as many as a quarter of UK businesses may not be fully compliant with AE legislation. The latest annual report from The Pensions Regulator states that over 33 per cent of employers have been subject to a risk-targeted intervention by the regulator and 48,000 fines have been issued for AE non-compliance.
Measures introduced during 2020 to ease the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, including the furlough scheme, have only added to the complexity of the AE compliance landscape, without reducing employers’ responsibilities.
Conducting AE assessments and tasks manually carries significant business risk from a governance perspective and many employers continue to underestimate the penalties for being non-compliant. In today’s technology-driven workplace, AE should be relatively straightforward, but the constraints of historic administration systems (including but not limited to payroll) tend to make this expensive or impractical.
This partnership will see Husky provide ongoing AE support to employers’ payroll teams, including undertaking worker assessments, statutory communications, managing opt-in and opt-outs, and submitting pension contributions.
Husky utilises state-of-the-art technology to automate and simplify the complexity and ensure compliance. In addition, they will also provide audit and remedial support service for employers who may have got into difficulties.
Vested will provide employers with pension advisory and governance services. Vested advises UK employers on all aspects of workplace pensions and protection, health and wellbeing, and benefit technology
Vested MD Howard Finch says : “Employers continue to need advice and support in relation to their workplace pensions and auto-enrolment administration. Many lack the systems and resource needed to manage these tasks efficiently and compliantly.
“Our partnership with Husky will provide employers with a robust, complete and affordable solution, so that payroll teams are effectively supported and can refocus their resource on their core responsibilities. This partnership is built on our shared belief in the power of benefit technology to enable UK employers to energise their approach to delivering employee benefits.”
AE was introduced in 2021 and now covers 10.2m workers at almost 1.6m firms.
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