Final Rules For Personal Pension Accounts Put Before Parliament

The Government put its final proposals to oblige all employers to contribute to employees’ personal pension accounts before Parliament this week.  The personal accounts scheme would be named NEST (National Employment Savings Trust).
The changes will be phased in from in 2012, starting with the largest businesses of over 120,000 employees paying into a pension scheme from October 2012. The introduction of the obligation will be staged by size of employer, from largest to smallest through to 2016, with start up small businesses given additional time to prepare to comply.  The scale of employer contributions will also be phased in, from 1% in 2012 to 2% in October 2016 and to the full 3% by 2017.  Automatic enrolment of businesses will begin in October 2012 and also be completed by October 2017.
Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Yvette Cooper said that the Government had responded to business concerns in making the introduction of the changes as straightforward as possible.
"Even during these difficult economic times, employers, industry and unions agreed with us that these reforms were vital in giving millions of people the chance to save in a pension for the first time.
"The cost to all of us of doing nothing in the face of an ageing society is too great to ignore. Currently 14 million people get no contribution from their employer towards a pension and around 7 million people are not saving enough for their retirement.
"These reforms will give everyone the chance to build up a pension. It is the biggest change to support for working people since the introduction of the minimum wage."