Wingate receives GOLD Investors in People accreditation
Wingate Benefit Solutions, a leading firm of Corporate Advisers based in Caterham, Surrey has been awarded the Investors in People Gold standard, joining the top 7% of accredited organisations across the UK who believe in realising the potential of their people. Established in the 1970’s the Caterham based company has an ethos to work in […]
Full steam ahead to 2015 and ‘Pension Freedom’
Yesterday the Government confirmed it had agreed the radical changes proposed in the 2014 budget in relation to defined contribution (DC) pensions and their retirement benefit ‘flexibility’. The announcement confirmed: Defined Contribution (DC) ‘flexibility’ will go ahead from April 2015. Tax-free cash will stay at 25%. Balance 75% can be withdrawn as a lump sum which will […]
Wingate launches SME Employee Benefit Reward Platform
We are delighted to announce the launch of an online portal which is designed to help employers meet the increasing demands from employees for choice on the benefits they receive whilst also enforcing the overall value of the reward and compensation package they enjoy. The costs for implementing these type of benefit platforms is often prohibitive, […]
Are you taking a gamble?
In a recent survey carried out by the leading insurance provider, Zurich, it was established that small and medium sized enterprises (SME’s) are at risk of a ‘severe impact’ by having no insurance protection in place for key employees and/or the business owners. Zurich’s research which surveyed 513 senior decision makers from SME’s found that […]
Don’t let ‘Auto Enrolment’ take your eye off the ball
Without doubt, the current priority for most businesses is their planning for ‘auto enrolment’ or the integration of new systems, having already completed the employee enrolment process and achieved compliance with the government’s workplace pension reforms. These priorities are understandable given the potential fines that can be levied by The Pension Regulator for non compliance […]
Pension Scheme Charges to be capped at 0.75%
The charges made on pension schemes provided for employees under the Workplace pension reforms will be subject to a maximum cap of 0.75% under government plans confirmed last week. Pensions minister Steve Webb said the cap for auto-enrolment schemes would be in place by April 2015. Currently, all pension providers levy a charge on each […]
Don’t overlook the 2014/15 earnings thresholds for Auto Enrolment
If you are in the process of carrying out some forward planning in terms of costs for Auto Enrolment, remembder to take into account the 2014/15 thresholds that will be introduced from 6th April 2014. The thresholds are: £10,000 as the Automatic Enrolment earnings trigger £5,772 as the lower limit of the qualifying earnings band […]
Six degrees of separation or Six steps to compliance
Six degrees of separation is the theory that everyone and everything is six or fewer steps away, by way of introduction, from any other person in the world, so that a chain of “a friend of a friend” statements can be made to connect any two people in a maximum of six steps. In keeping […]
Value for Money for Pension Scheme Members – December 2013
The tail end of September saw widespread media coverage of an Office of Fair Trading Report (OFT) on defined contribution workplace pension schemes. We provided a summary of the key findings in our October bulletin and this document concentrates on one of those key areas, which was that the OFT wish to ensure that employees […]
Brace yourself for the ‘Capacity’ Storm
With the recent storms now easing, our attentions should now be directed to the next storm, the pension provider ‘capacity’ storm. Many of the organisations that have already passed through their auto enrolment staging date have stated that in hindsight, they should have started their planning earlier. These companies typically thought that auto enrolment was […]
