About Workplace Pensions Direct

About auto-enrolment

What is auto-enrolment?

The law on pensions has changed, all UK employers must set up a workplace pension scheme, put certain staff into it and contribute towards it. This is called ‘Automatic Enrolment’. There’s a long list of tasks employers must complete to comply with the law; including assessing employee eligibility, pension scheme set up and payroll integration. This pension scheme must then be continually maintained through any company changes.

In addition, every 3 years, each company must complete their re-enrolment duties, that means doing everything all over again and then looking at your pension options and consider switching into a better arrangement.

What problems has it caused for business?

Employers have found auto-enrolment to be harder than expected. They have underestimated the amount of work involved in setting workplace pension schemes up and started to look at duties late, missing key actions and deadlines. Many have been offered ‘easy’ and ‘cheap’ solutions that have turned out to be far from it. Many have declared their compliance incorrectly. The Pensions Regulator has issued thousands of fixed penalty fines of £400 and hundreds of escalating penalty fines, £500 per day based on 5 to 49 employees.

And, what problems has it caused for business advisers?

Business advisers have found auto-enrolment to be more time consuming and complicated than expected. At first their clients ignored letters reminding them of the need to set up a workplace pension scheme. Then they have turned to the business adviser for advice. It has proved to be a distraction from their core business activities. Few advisers are well equipped to answer all the questions. The business adviser often lacked the expertise, experience or insurance to advise. Payroll advisers can’t answer pension scheme questions; pension scheme advisers can’t answer payroll questions. Some advisers offered no solution. Others offered a simplified one-scheme solution, which could prove costly for the employer or their workers, and may backfire for all parties when the Pensions Regulator audits each company. Few offer a comprehensive solution for all clients, large and small.

What we do for employers

What are the problems we solve for employers?

We make auto-enrolment simple by providing an end-to-end solution for employers. Both at scheme set-up, and on an ongoing basis, we guarantee our clients’ compliance with the law*. Instead of taking many man hours of an employer’s valuable time, you’ll have an audit-proof pension scheme set up and maintained with just 90 minutes of conversations. We’ll build a manageable timetable of tasks, assisting the employer though every step of the process. No more worry about the distraction of auto-enrolment, we will remove the burden, the hassle and the time taken. We have created a production-line system to help employers save money, save time, and above all, get compliant with the law.

What makes us stand out from the crowd?

We have made a significant investment in industry-leading technology, to deliver professional, efficient and scalable administration processes. Business advisers providing bespoke manual solutions can take over 20 hours to complete a case and have a qualifying workplace pension scheme set up, and charge over £3,000. Small firms can’t afford this. We can deliver best-in-class service at industry beating prices – starting from £195 pension scheme set up fees for firms with 1 or 2 employees, that’s less than national average fees, and less than a fine! We have the expertise, experience, systems and insurance, to handle the volumes of employers – large and small – who have yet to set up a workplace pension scheme.

Our 5 guarantees

xCOMPLIANCE GUARANTEE

We take away the risk of auto-enrolment by ensuring each and every step is completed correctly and on time, both at set up and on an ongoing basis. In fact, we’re so confident in our service and solution, we guarantee, if our clients get fined – we pay it!*

COST SAVING GUARANTEE

With 1000s of firms helped so far, we know every nook and cranny. We make sure that pension scheme contributions are applied in the most cost effective way for each employer and their workers, potentially saving up to £1,000 per worker per annum (based on UK national average earnings).

HASSLE-FREE GUARANTEE

We hand-hold employers through every step of the process, communicating with both payroll and the Pensions Regulator on their behalf. Each employer will be assigned a dedicated client account manager, not just for the owner/director but for the staff and payroll professional, providing comprehensive help-desk support on any auto-enrolment queries and workplace pension problems.

SCHEME SELECTION GUARANTEE

As pension consultants, we regularly complete our due diligence on the whole of the market of pension providers, and we offer each employer a panel of different qualifying contract-based and trust-based pension schemes to choose from, to help you fulfil your legal duty to find the one most suitable for you and your workers.

NO QUIBBLE MONEY BACK GUARANTEE

We meet our stated promises, or your money back.

What we do for business advisers

What are the problems we solve for business advisers?

Most business advisers have no option but to deal with their client’s auto-enrolment, or risk losing the client. For the larger client firms who can afford the fees this is seldom a problem. For small firms it’s a different matter. Few advisers are expert, experienced or insured to advise on every aspect of workplace pension schemes. Fewer still have made the investment in time-saving back office systems. Advisers can expect each pension scheme setup to take 20 hours to complete, and you would need to charge a few thousand-pounds to make the service profitable and sustainable. Research suggests that small employers are only willing to pay around £500 to have auto-enrolment dealt with. So, advisers could either offer an in-house solution as a loss-leader to retain the client for core services, cut-corners with risky simplified solutions, or outsource to us instead.

What makes us stand out from the crowd?

We’ve proved to be the expert, experienced and insured partner of choice for our extensive network of almost 500 business advisers across the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. By providing industrial-strength, scalable solutions, we remove the burden of auto-enrolment administration and pension scheme setup for many business adviser firms. We offer comprehensive, expert and experienced support on every aspect – Payroll and Pensions. From end-to-end, we’ll hand-hold an employer, and their payroll professional, through every step of the pension scheme setup process. Business adviser partners are delighted with our service. Our service is inclusive and affordable for all our business advisers’ clients, whatever the size of firm. As part of our partner network, our business advisers also receive a passive income from referrals.

Why consider a range of schemes?

Why it’s important to offer employers a choice of schemes

The law states that it’s the employer’s responsibility to choose a pension scheme that contains the features that are important for their workers. Not all pension schemes are the same; some have more features than others, higher costs or different administration processes. It’s therefore important to consider a range of pension schemes to find the most suitable for your business. The employer would be advised to record the rationale for selecting the right pension scheme for audit purposes.

What schemes do we offer?

We have reviewed all pension schemes from large, specialist providers designed to be used by many different employers. We have selected a panel of the best schemes that work with your payroll, and we provide you with details of features, costs and tax implications for each, so you can select a scheme that’s suitable for you and your staff. We simplify choosing a pension scheme.

What do we stand for?

Excellence

We pride ourselves on our expertise and experience. We recruit high calibre staff and invest in the development of our people. This is reflected in maintained high standards of service delivery for our clients.

Fairness

We’re fair. We treat all stakeholders fairly – clients, partners, employees, shareholders, suppliers and the broader community. We make costs clear.

Service

We’re committed to providing professional and comprehensive support and training for employers and their business advisers. We cover every aspect, from payroll to pensions, from initial contact right through to submitting final compliance documents, and beyond.

Simplicity

We simplify auto-enrolment.

The values of our business are a reflection of our people

With decades of experience under their belts, the Workplace Pensions Direct team are able to provide our business with expertise, experience and values to make sure you get the best specialist payroll and workplace pensions advice possible.

The Workplace Pensions Direct Board of Directors

Keith Humphrey

Keith is the CEO and co-founder of Workplace Pensions Direct. His role is to set the strategic direction of the business and oversee its development and growth. Having worked in corporate pensions for over twenty years, Keith recognized early on that there was a need to provide specialist auto enrolment support to both businesses and business advisers. Away from work Keith is a Writer, Composer and Producer of new stage musicals.

Michael Huber

Michael is the Commercial Director and co-founder at Workplace Pensions Direct and is responsible for all direct and partner network development. Mike developed the WPD business model and has overseen the rapid roll out of the small and micro business auto enrolment solution. Prior to this endeavour, Mike owned and ran a successful property development enterprise, developing and letting luxury holiday homes. Mike is an assistant coach for under 10s at a local rugby union club.

Steve Conley

As Managing Director, Steve is responsible for designing and implementing WPD’s long term plans, as well as overseeing the day to day running of the business. Steve is a proven senior executive at this level, with three decades of experience in pensions, including head of investments at HSBC, RBS Group and Santander. Steve is an award winning chartered financial professional, an international keynote speaker and a values-based ambassador for various industry think tanks and forums.

Drew Donaldson

Drew is the Operations Director at WPD. Drew designed and implemented systems and processes, on a global leading customer platform, that streamlined auto enrolment, allowing WPD to offer a fully scalable, comprehensive and cost effective production-line service to small and micro businesses. Drew’s extensive pension and finance background has seen him contribute to the success of Aviva and RBS in key strategic roles. He is a highly credible, trusted and respected figure in the pensions industry. Drew has a civil engineering background, and is keen on running, cycling and ‘duathlons’.