If you are an employer, could this apply to you?
Founder, sriServices & Fund EcoMarket
Ros Altmann* writes in Money Marketing
“I want to highlight a major pensions injustice concerning employers who choose an auto-enrolment scheme administered on a net pay basis.
“Such schemes cannot add the 25 per cent bonus of tax relief to contributions of workers earning less than £11,500 a year from the employer.
“Auto-enrolling these employees – mostly women – into a net pay scheme forces them to pay extra for their pension. Every £10 that someone on more than £11,510 a year puts into a pension will cost only £8 but every £10 low earners contribute costs them the full amount. So the lowest paid are paying £2 more for the same pension.
“If their employer were to use a relief at source scheme instead, no one would have to pay more than £8 for their £10 of pension. But most would not understand the difference between choosing a net pay or relief at source scheme.
When discovering this as pensions minister, I tried desperately to address it. But nobody was interested in helping the low earners.Officials said “It’s not much money”, which I found unacceptable.
Firstly, it may not be much money, but it could and should be theirs if their employer had chosen a different scheme.
