Pensions Auto-Enrolment: BBC Radio Wales

Wolfestone Director Roy Allkin featured on Jason Mohammad’s show on BBC Radio Wales this month, speaking on the subject of pensions. The UK Government is rolling out auto-enrolment starting from October 1st 2012, meaning that from that date large companies are legally obliged to offer their permanent staff pensions. The roll-out is gradual, but will eventually affect all companies that employ permanent staff. There is a shortfall for future pensions in Government budgets, and Westminster sees auto-enrolment as a vehicle that will prepare today’s workers for retirement. Famous names such as Karen Brady and Nick Hewer from the Apprentice have backed the scheme. However many business bodies including the Federation of Small Businesses have been critical, because of the administrative burden on smaller businesses. Mr Allkin spoke on behalf of employers: “We are big enough to absorb the costs, but there is still a significant cost to us in resourcing the administrative and direct monetary costs. We calculate this will cost us around £20,000 a year. We know the FSB has been campaigning for a long time on this issue, and we agree that we are concerned for the smaller companies out there. Those micro businesses that have small margins and low profits – it could be really difficult for them to manage the change” You can hear the full interview at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01n2m89 starting from 1:47:00.