Pensions and SMEs
Mandating pensions: the implications for small firms
Bernard H. Casey, Institute of Employment Research, University of Warwick, and Faculty of Finance, Cass Business School
Alongside the suggestion that the state retirement age be raised to 68, the proposal from the Turner Commission that attracted most attention was that all employees should be required to make savings into a supplementary pension plan, and that employers should make contributions into that plan, too. The principle of a National Pension Savings Scheme (NPSS) was taken up with enthusiasm by the government and included in its Pensions White Paper of May 2006. Further steps were taken in the December 2006 White Paper which laid out implementation procedures. This project is looking at the impact on employment of pension schemes that impose costs upon employers. It is particularly concerned with the responses of small firms, which seldom make pensions provision.
Good practice in encouraging employee participation in pensions schemes in SMEs
Ian Stone, Durham Business School
This research project aims to investigate how businesses encourage savings by their employees. The research will articulate some of the (employer and employee) barriers to this process and make suggestions on how they may be overcome. The lessons learned from the project will undoubtedly be of benefit to the forthcoming reform of the pensions system and, in particular, how to increase employer and employee ‘buy-in' to the new systems. For example, rather than waiting to respond to the new legislation when it takes effect in 2012, small business can be encouraged to start early.