The introduction of stakeholder pensions a generation ago marked the government’s first attempt to introduce inexpensive pension provision via the workplace.

Employers with five or more employees were, with some exceptions, required to designate a stakeholder pension arrangement. The initiative was ultimately unsuccessful. Many employers designated schemes that were never used – others simply never bothered to select a scheme at all. The government of the day made little attempt at enforcement.

The experience of the stakeholder pension led many to wonder if automatic enrolment might suffer similar problems. For the first time, this was a workplace pensions policy that would apply to every single employer in the country and would represent an enforcement challenge that was without precedent in UK pensions history.

However, as we have seen, The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has taken its enforcement responsibilities extremely seriously. TPR has been thorough and consistent in its dealings with rogue employers, and its policy of naming and shaming has seen a succession of stories in the pensions media of prosecutions and other measures.

To be credible, automatic enrolment must be available to all employees who meet the relevant criteria. Additionally, unscrupulous employers must not be permitted to achieve any degree of commercial advantage through deliberate non-compliance. TPR is to be congratulated for its enforcement work, which is vital if automatic enrolment is to continue to succeed.

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