Warnings, notices and payment of fines
There are certain legal duties you must meet for automatic enrolment. You, the employer, are responsible for meeting them, and if you don’t comply, you may face enforcement action including compliance notices, and penalty notices (fines).
Key points
- What happens if you don’t comply? Those who don't comply may face enforcement action in line with our risk-based approach.
- If you receive a penalty notice, you can pay your fine online or by BACS transfer.
- If you comply late or don't keep up to date with your pension contributions, we expect you to pay back any missed contributions to put staff in the position they would have been in if you had complied on time; this would include backdating contributions to the day that your staff member first met the age and earnings criteria to be put into a scheme.
- When backdating contributions, you must pay all the unpaid employer contributions and your staff member must pay theirs, unless you choose to pay it for them. As part of any enforcement action we may require that you pay your staff member’s contributions as well as your own.
- Failure to maintain payment of the correct contributions to a scheme may result in penalties. If you don’t pay your fine, we can recover the debt through the courts.
- If you received a penalty notice you still need to complete a declaration of compliance. If you've completed a declaration of compliance at the time of being issued a penalty, you need to ensure that you've paid the fine or arranged a payment plan with us.