Leicester and Rutland Association of Local Councils have been alarmed to discover that there are still local councils who believe that pension auto-enrolment does not impact on them as they have no employees for whom they have a duty to auto-enrol (e.g. because employee earnings are too low or because the employee is of pensionable age).

Some duties apply to ALL employers, even if your staff aren't eligible to be automatically enrolled into a scheme. Complete the Pensions Regulator Duties Checker (here) to ensure you understand what you need to do.

Employers (even small and micro employers, which many local councils will be classed as) ARE being fined (over 3,000 so far) for simply not submitting the required Declaration of Compliance (i.e., formally notifying the Pensions Regulator that they have no employees for whom they have a duty to auto-enrol) within 5 months of their staging date.

Of particular interest is a recent ruling upholding a fine which said "that it was the employer's legal responsibility to ensure that they comply with the law – including the submission of the declaration of compliance by the deadline". The judge "also confirmed that the fact that a junior member of staff had failed to do this on the employer's behalf did not amount to a reasonable excuse". In other words, parish councils themselves must assure themselves as the employer that they have done what they are required to by law.

The Pensions Regulator's advice on the case amounts to "make sure you know who is doing what"; i.e. don't assume someone has done it, they may not have.

Any council that is not compliant stands the very real chance of ending up with a fine.

See below for the press release from the Pensions Regulator covering this topic:

http://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/press/pn16-42.aspx