Glasgow Business . 21
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Special Chamber event explores the burning issues surrounding pension auto-enrolment, particularly for small and medium-sized businesses
Planning for pensions: now is the time to start S
teve Webb MP, Minister of State for Pensions, said the UK Government had the ambition to transform long-term savings and make the UK a
nation of savers once again, at an event in September organised by Glasgow Chamber of Commerce. He said that automatic enrolment for a
pension scheme was a central plank in achieving the Government’s ambition and that it would only succeed if it had the support of businesses, including small businesses. Mr Webb said he believed this was the
best opportunity in a decade to solve the problem of people not saving enough for their retirement. He said that bigger companies already had
to enrol and that from January 2014, firms employing between 350 and 499 would have to enrol their employees in a pension scheme. David Nish, Chief Executive of Standard
Life, said that since the financial crash there had been a very low level of people registering with pension schemes. “From that point of view, the introduction
of auto-enrolment has been very significant,” he said. “It will be important in encouraging a
return to a culture of saving within the UK. In many ways our SMEs have a very different challenge from the large corporates.” He urged SMEs to start planning for
auto-enrolment, even though their registration date seemed a long way off. Vary McMenemy, President of Glasgow
Chamber of Commerce, said that a good pension scheme was something employees were looking to their employers for. “Tey want to have something in place which is well designed, well executed and which works for them.” She said that for her the problem would
not come in businesses registering for auto enrolment. “Te scary part is what happens aſterwards, because it’s the administration of it that gets me,” she said. She said that in a firm with 100 employees
and one HR manager there would be a lot of change and complexity which would have to be dealt with in administering the pension scheme. Aſter the breakfast meeting Sam
Henderson, Director of financial planners and Glasgow Chamber member firm Henderson Stone said: “It was very good to see Glasgow Chamber hosting this meeting with the minister. “We are very much involved in the
auto-enrolment market and we know that there are a lot of smaller businesses who have
put the issue to one side. “By the time they do get round to
thinking about it, there will be so many businesses trying to do so that there will be a real problem with capacity – people who run small businesses have to act now to at least find out what is involved in auto-enrolment.”
The audience heard from a panel including Steve Webb MP, Minister of State for Pensions (below). Other speakers included (above, from left): John Greenwood, Editor, New Model Advisor; David Nish, Chief Executive, Standard Life; Stuart Patrick, Chief Executive, Glasgow Chamber of Commerce and Varry McMenemy, Managing Director, Bellcom Worldwide Ltd and President, Glasgow Chamber of Commerce
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