Survey finds many firms are failing to offer minimum of stakeholder pension schemes

A survey by the Axa insurance group found one in six companies are at risk of being fined for failing to offer employees some form of pension arrangement.

Axa claims that if the one in six figure is a true reflection of what is happening then over 25,000 firms could be breaking the law.

All employers with at least five employees have been required to offer some form of pension provision since October 2001. As a minimum this must be access to a stakeholder pension scheme.

There is no requirement on employers to contribute to the scheme but they must make it available to employees and enable them to make contributions via the payroll.

There are fines of up to £50,000 for those found flout the rules, which are policed by the OPRA regulatory body.