Payroll industry is coping with auto-enrolment

Research into the impact of automatic enrolment on the payroll industry has found the time needed to help SMEs to stage is now an average of 20 days.

The study is published by the Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals (CIPP) and puts the breakthrough – which has shattered estimates – down to ‘significant specialisation’ of payroll bureaux which have been forced to adapt quickly after being pushed into a new environment.

Despite rising to the auto-enrolment challenge through solid practice, the report says the task of data transfer to pension providers is not without consequence.

A lack of uniformity within the pensions industry and the associated need for manual processing could potentially lead to inefficiency, including the chance of error. In turn, it has created a demand for greater automation.

The study’s author, Dr Iain Clacher, associate professor in accounting and finance at Leeds University, wrote: “Despite these risks and costs, automatic enrolment is becoming an efficient process and this is being made possible by the efforts of the payroll industry.

“The industry may have been forced to engage with this process but payroll has made automatic enrolment work as part of a broader commercial offering and SMEs are benefiting from the industry’s specialization and expertise.”

It is estimated that payroll bureaux will be helping 1.3m firms engage with pensions.

Moore Thompson offers comprehensive auto-enrolment support and is skilled in identifying the costs of auto-enrolment and reviewing existing pension schemes for auto-enrolment compliance. For more information, please contact us.