Pension contributions or lack of

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A friend is employed by a company. Him and the other staff found out at the end of last year that the employer hadn’t been paying pension contributions for anyone since the summer, but the money had been deducted from their salary. They didn’t know about this because they stopped getting wage slips in the summer, despite chasing the employer to provide them. Also NI and tax was unpaid, but deducted.
The pensions provider automatically reported the employer, and then emailed the staff to let them know what had happened. This is how they all found out. The employer had said nothing to the staff up to this point.
No contributions have gone in since (every month they are sent another email to say the employer has been reported once again).
Staff asked employer about this and were shouted down. Some staff have now left as a result of the situation and the way it has been handled.

Employer is acting like there is no problem and said that they are simply getting a small fine and they don’t know what everyone is so worried about. It is definitely under investigation as friend has had this confirmed by pensions regulator.

What is likely to happen to this employer? There is no reason for this to have happened apart from poor management and, unfortunately, regularly dodgy dealings with money being moved around and people underpaid etc. Employer made several large purchases around the time of the pension situation happening that has caused staff to raise eyebrows about where their pension money may have gone.

Will employer get away with this and will my friend ever see his pension money? There are 5 staff members affected. All still without wage slips, pension contributions, tax and NI contributions. Now ongoing for 7 months.

Crumbs no advice but bumping for you.

your family member needs to get another job…

• Prevention: the person may need to take steps to address and prevent repeating the action that contravened pensions legislation, or other duties.
• Remedy: the person may need to provide funding or other financial support to the pension scheme or take steps to put things right and correct the contravention of pensions legislation or other duties.
• Restoration: the person may need to restore loss or detriment caused to a scheme and/or its savers, by putting them into the position they would have been in had the contravention of pensions legislation or other duties, or the act or conduct which caused the loss or detriment not occurred.
• Deterrence: even if a contravention of pensions legislation or other duties can be put right or remedied, a sanction may be appropriate to punish the person responsible. This acts as a deterrent to change the future behaviour of not only that person, but also the wider pensions industry.

https://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/en/about-us/how-we-regulate-and-enforce/enforcement-strategy

Given that aim of the regulator, I would hope that people affected are put back in the same position they would have been in, had the payments to the pension been made at the appropriate time. In reality though that may be hard to achieve.

Are HMRC also investigating? I think initially a complaint maybe handled by ACAS and then have HMRC involved as it is tax related.
ACAS Pay & Work Rights Helpline: https://www.gov.uk/pay-and-work-rights

It is a big deal. A pp has given advice about the pension.

Contact ACAS about the lack of payslips as it is unlawful not to provide them as they are evidence tax and NI have been deducted. https://www.acas.org.uk/payslips

Thank you all. HMRC are involved, as are ACAS. The employer was also reported to HMRC 12 months ago for underpaying junior staff members, but it doesn’t seem to have made them any more aware that they need to abide by the law.

Your friend needs to change job NOW. Doing so won’t affect the outcome of the investigations into the employer either way, but at least the rot will have been stopped.

I think you can also complain via the pension provider and/or pension regulator and request an adjustment/compensation for the lost investment growth those contributions would have received had they been sent on time.

Your friend should raise a complaint with the Pensions Ombudsman. The regulator might fine the employer, but the ombudsman can order compensation to be paid to the individual makig the complaint (if he thinks it’s due) as well as ordering the employer to rectify the lost contributions and any lost investment income.

Thank you. I’ve advised friend to leave and he is job hunting at the moment. He can’t believe how casually the employers are behaving about it, as if the staff are causing a fuss for no reason and ‘it’ll get put back in eventually, what’s the problem?’