A group helping employers and payroll professionals get to grips with compulsory workplace pensions will host North Swindon MP Justin Tomlinson at next month’s meeting.
Swindon Friends of Automatic Enrolment (FoAE) have invited the MP to its meeting on January 15 where he will get the chance to gauge opinion about workplace pensions – also knowns as automatic enrolment. Group members will also be able to ask him questions. 
The invitation was made after Mr Tomlinson mentioned FoAE in the House of Commons as playing a “key role” in helping to deliver workplace pensions.
All employers are having to set up workplace pension schemes for their staff. There are different staging dates depending on the size of the business, and from this year a huge wave of smaller firms are being pulled in, with a spike at the end of 2016 and into 2017.
The Swindon FoAE was set up earlier this year by Nicki Goddard-Dady, payroll manager at Banks BHG chartered accountants.
Nicki, pictured, said: “As minister for disabled people, working alongside Iain Duncan-Smith in the Department of Work and Pensions, we know Justin is interested in workplace pensions and how the system is working. He has been a local business owner in Swindon and so we can also ask him to talk about auto enrolment from a business owner point of view.
“With auto enrolment also applying to the thousands of disabled people and elderly people who employ care workers to help them, we’d like to ask him how having to provide a workplace pension will affect them.”
Swindon FoAE is affiliated to the national FoAE which was launched by the Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals. Members of the group include IFAs, HR advisers and payroll managers, as well as employers wanting to understand more about auto enrolment.
The group meets bimonthly and is free to attend. The January 15 meeting, which is being hosted by Banks BHG at its offices in Stratton, starts at 9.30am. To book, visit www.banksbhg.com/events.
