On the go: The Pensions Ombudsman has upheld a complaint against accounting company Berics over £678 in unpaid auto-enrolment contributions, reporting the employer to the Pensions Regulator.
The case was brought by a Mr E, formerly a Berics employee, who alleged that contributions had been deducted from his salary but not paid into his pension.
No contributions were made between April and December 2019. Berics emailed Mr E in December and promised a one-off lump sum payment to make good the arrears, but no such payment was received.
Mr E emailed Berics five times in January 2020 pursuing the missing money, but received no reply from the company. The case was referred to the Pensions Ombudsman, whose enquiries also went unanswered.
The adjudicator ordered the company to pay Mr E the missing £678, and concluded Mr E had suffered “serious distress and inconvenience” as a result of maladministration, awarding him an additional £1,000.
Berics did not reply to the adjudicator’s opinion, either.
In his judgment, the ombudsman, Anthony Arter, said that Berics “has shown a complete disregard of its responsibilities and legal requirements”, not least in its failure to respond to enquiries. He added that his office would submit a report to the regulator.
Berics now has 21 days to pay the missing contributions and the £1,000 to remedy the distress it caused, and to request that Nest calculates any loss of investment gains from the due date of each contribution.
The company will have to pay Nest’s administration costs for this exercise, and pay Mr E for any loss of investment gains within seven days of Nest identifying them.
