One-third (32%) of employers that are due to begin automatically enrolling staff into workplace pensions in early 2013 are still deciding on the design of their scheme, according to a new survey.
These organisations have not yet made up their minds on factors such as: how much to contribute to employee pension pots; what type of arrangement to opt for; and whether or not to tailor contributions to different groups of employees, according to the survey of 300 clients from HR consultancy Mercer.
The research also found that 15% of employers with a staging date in the first half of 2013 are yet to make a choice on what type of pension plan to offer.
Overall, 42% of employers due to start pensions auto-enrolment from 2013 onwards said that they would use a contract-based pensions scheme; 20% planned to use unbundled trust arrangements (where investment and administration are supplied by different providers); and 9% intended to use a master trust, like NEST.
Rachel Brougham, head of Mercer’s auto-enrolment group, said: “Experience shows the implementation stage of auto-enrolment to be the key challenge, so those not yet decided on their strategy will have their hands full in the coming months.”
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She added that employers should not wait until they have identified what pensions solution to use before looking at how they will need to adapt their systems for the introduction of auto-enrolment.
