Workplace pension reform: the devil in the detail

From 2012 all employers will have to enrol all eligible workers into a pension scheme. For the first time employer contributions will be mandatory.

Regulations detailing the reforms were passed earlier this year, and this month the new administration announced in the coalition agreement that it "will work with business and the industry to support auto enrolment".

Although there may be additional tweaks to the legislation as the new government gets to grips with the reforms, employers, pension managers and trustees can now see how workplace pension reform will affect them and start to prepare and plan for its implementation.

The broad concepts have been settled for some time (and were covered in our previous alerts - Personal accounts and auto-enrolment - what does this mean for you? on pension issues and on employment issues), but what devils lurk in the details, waiting to trip the unwary or unprepared?

In this alert, Wragge & Co's workplace pension reform experts, Richard Lee, partner and head of the Combined Human Resource Solutions team, and Ian Curry, solicitor in the Combined Human Resource Solutions team, answer those thorny questions. They untangle the knotty details, giving useful and practical tips on defying the devilish detail and successfully implementing the reforms.