The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has announced that it will increase its efforts to crack down on employers failing to provide sufficient workplace pensions, the regulator announced today.
Commenting on the launch of TPR’s corporate plan for the coming year, chairman Mark Boyle said: “You can expect to see us being more vocal about our expectations of those we regulate and intervening quickly and decisively through our wide-ranging regulatory activity and enforcement powers so that workplace pension schemes are run properly and people can save safely for retirement.”
Among others, TPR pledged to commit £4.3m more IN resources to protecting pension savers in 2018/2019, in order to crack down on rouge employer who neglect their pension schemes, as well as to launch launch a new anti-scams campaign to help prevent savers from being ripped-off.
The regulator has also committed over a third of its budget for this year to its Frontline Regulation team, while 16% is being dedicated to assisting with the automatic enrollment process and 20% to policy and advisory work.
TPR has recently announced that it intends to make use of its enhanced regulatory powers to enforce compliance with mandatory pension provisions. Among others, it will start to seize assets of employers who refuse to pay workplace pension fines.
The 2004 Pensions Act gives the regulator the power to conduct spot checks among workplaces and take employers who fail to comply with the inspections to court.
While the regulator has historically chosen to opt for settlement agreements with the employers in question, recent intervention measures, such as the prosecution of a Yorkshire brewery last month, suggest that it intends to intervene more actively.
