Stakeholder Pensions are to be introduced in April 2001. Any employer with 5 or more employees will be required to offer membership of a Stakeholder Pension scheme to all of those employees who have worked for more than 3 months and such a scheme must be installed by October 2001.
Any employer failing to comply with Stakeholder regulations could be subject to a substantial fine.
Although there is some speculation that in the future, contributions to Stakeholder Pensions from both employer and employee could become mandatory, at the outset, there is no requirement for an employer to make a payment into the Stakeholder scheme on behalf of the employees. Employees will simply be invited to join the scheme and the principle cost to the employer is represented by the time and effort which will have to be spent in establishing the scheme, collecting premiums from employee salaries, submitting such contributions to the insurance company and accounting to the regulatory body (OPRA) which will monitor the running of such schemes.
Most insurance companies and many banks, unions and affiliations will offer a Stakeholder Pension. At this point (January 2001) not all of the Stakeholder schemes which will become available have yet been launched and we believe that it is important to recommend a Stakeholder scheme which not only offers comprehensive features to the members of the scheme but also is able to offer a streamlined administration system to cut down on the employers administration burden. Obviously, until more Stakeholder schemes are available, it is impossible to offer an objective view as to which scheme is likely to best suit our clients’ requirements and for the moment therefore, our general advice is to take no precipitous action other than to register with us by sending an e-mail to stakeholder@apfs.co.uk confirming contact details and the number of employees.The e-mail will be acknowledged and you need take no further steps until we contact you again. In due course, we will prepare information packs for all of your employees and we will carry out the work required to establish a Stakeholder scheme on your behalf.
Although some of our counterparts are indicating that they will charge thousands of pounds for this service, we believe that it is financially viable for us to implement a Stakeholder scheme for an employer for a one-off payment of £250. This amount will not be invoiced until the scheme is fully established.
Please click HERE to connect to the DSS website for further comprehensive details of Stakeholder requirements.