New advert warns salons not to ignore introduction of compulsory pensions scheme

Don’t ignore the arrival of compulsory workplace pensions over the next two years. That is the advice from a new TV advertising campaign from The Pensions Regulator (above), which provides information and guidance on workplace pension schemes.

The ad warned small businesses like salons to be aware of the auto-enrolment scheme coming into play across businesses of all sizes in the UK, either in 2016 or 2017.

The nationwide change will make it compulsory for businesses to offer and pay into a workplace pension for its employees, no matter the size or type of businesses or number of staff employed. It can take as long as a year to implement the scheme, so The Pensions Regulator is advising businesses not to delay.

The date by which businesses will need to have a pension in place is being referred to as a “staging date”, and for most small salons this will be at some point over the next two years, either in 2016 or 2017. 

Hilary Hall, chief executive of the National Hairdressers’ Federation, which last year launched a pension scheme specifically for salons, said: “Even if your staging date is in 2017 you need to be preparing for pensions auto-enrolment right now.Salons that fail to offer employees access to a pension when they should risk heavy fines of up to £50,000.”