About WPD Group

The Payroll and Pension Experts

About WPD Group

Who are WPD?

Workplace Pensions Direct (WPD) was founded in 2013 to simplify auto enrolment for small to medium businesses as a result of the Government initiative to help more people save for later life through a pension scheme at work.

In 2018 we introduced WPD Payroll, a fully managed and outsourced payroll solution.

We currently support over 1,500 UK businesses with their payroll and pensions auto enrolment.

What do we do?

WPD provides payroll and pensions support to employers based in the UK and to overseas employers with UK based workers. We offer a full range for services for employers including:

  • Automatic enrolment compliance
  • Choosing and setting up an employer’s workplace pension from a panel of pension providers, such as:
    • NEST
    • Smart Pension
    • The Peoples Pension
    • Aviva
    • Scottish Widows
    • Aegon
  • Pension scheme administration
  • Employee pension help desk
  • Fully managed payroll for employers with between 5 & 2000 workers, including
    • Acting as your agent with HMRC
    • BACs payment of wages and RTI submission (if required)
    • Wage slips emailed directly to workers or self-service portal
  • Proactive tax saving ideas for employers and employees
    • Salary Sacrifice
    • Director’s pensions
    • Lump sum pension payments

Why do we do it?

We are pensions and payroll experts. It’s what we do. With an average of over 20 years’ experience in the industry, our team are unashamedly passionate about all things pensions and payroll – so you don’t have to be!

What are the benefits to our clients?

Demonstrable record of 100% accurate and reliable payroll and pensions processing.

Dedicated Payroll Manager – who will be your point of contact for all questions and queries. This person will be an extension of your business and will represent your business as an internal staff member would.

Compliant – Future proofing your business with 100% HMRC compliance

Cost effective – no hidden fees

Tax guidance – effective ways to reduce company tax liability through director’s pensions, lump sum pension payments and salary sacrifice schemes

Time savings – less time taken by admin team managing payroll requests/queries and processing data

Secure – all your data is securely stored and backed up

Top drawer support – employee and employer support. One central office in Yorkshire. Ask as a question – we’ll answer it or know someone who can!

Hassle free – we take full ownership of your entire payroll cycle, including HMRC and pensions submissions and payments.

Our people – we’re not just data inputters. We know Payroll & Pensions. Our team of qualified professionals will assist you and your business in your day to day payroll activities. We will keep you up to date with changes in legislation and (more recently) calculate and process furlough payments and HMRC requests. At no extra cost.

Automatic Enrolment Compliance

COMPLIANCE

Having helped over 1,500 employers to get compliant we know how to do it and have regular contact with The Pensions Regulator. 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. If you are having compliance issues please get in touch. We can usually make you compliant within 48 hours.

COST SAVINGS

Some employers are not aware that the legislation allows different ways of calculating pension deductions. We make sure that pension scheme contributions are applied in the most cost effective way for each employer and their workers.

HASSLE-FREE

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.

PENSION PROVIDERS

As independent pension consultants, we regularly complete our due diligence on a panel of pension providers, specialising in Workplace Pensions, 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.

NOT SURE WHAT TO DO OR WHO TO TURN TO?

Give us a call on 0113 457 4574. We are more than happy to answer any questions before you decide on what’s best for you.

What we do for business advisers

What are the problems we solve for business advisers?

Most business advisers feel as though they have no option but to deal with their client’s auto-enrolment, or potentially risk losing the client. 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.

It’s so much easier to let us help their clients. One less thing to worry about.

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. These advisers are primarily accountants and financial advisers. 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.

 

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 rational for selecting the right pension scheme for audit purposes.

What schemes do we offer?

We have selected a panel of the best schemes that provide good outcomes for employee. Before making a final decision we provide employers with an extensive report outlining the pros and cons of each scheme. Together we can choose a provider that is most suited to each individual business.

The Workplace Pensions Direct Board of Directors

Keith Humphrey

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.

Drew Donaldson

Drew is the Technical & Operations Director at WPD. Drew designed and implemented WPD’S systems and processes, on a global leading customer platform, that streamlined auto enrolment. 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 is passionate about running and cycling representing Team GB at the European Age Group Duathlon championships in 2020 & World championships in 2021.