It’s always a pleasure to see Tamebay readers get coverage in the national press and this weekend in the Sunday Times (subscription required) it was the turn of Tamebay Friend and contributor David Brackin of Stuff U Sell.
In the article, David talks about the pain of Workplace Pensions and his worry about how complex the process would be to provide the legally required pension scheme for Stuff U Sell’s employees. As an online entrepreneur, becoming a pensions expert wasn’t top of his priority list, neither was sending formal letters concerning pensions to staff who he speaks to on a daily basis.
David explains that he opted to use an online company, Smart Pensions (who we’ve previously written about). Smart Pension’s service is free for employees compared to the many pensions companies who charge to set up a workplace pension.There’s a small monthly cost for employees and best of all Smart Pensions handle all the legally required notifications to staff making the whole process of setting up a Workplace Pension as easy and painless as possible for employers.
If you’re thinking of hiring new staff, don’t forget to factor in the employer contributions you’ll have to pay for any staff earning over £10,000 per year and aged 22 or over. Currently it’s 1% but it’s due to rise to 2% in 2018 and 3% in 2019… and of course that’s on top of the normal NI and taxes that your business will be contributing.
It’s thought that some half a million small businesses have already missed the deadline to set up a Workplace Pension and many of these businesses probably haven’t listened to closely to the advert exhorting you to act even if you have just one employee working in your home. There are fines so best to act sooner rather than later. If you want to fulfil your obligations as an employer with a minimum of fuss and costs then take a look at Smart Pensions. Other providers are of course available.
