Strategic pension advice for social enterprises

Our specialist team of social business solicitors can offer support and advice to social enterprises on all aspects of strategic pensions advice.

We understand that for social enterprises the costs of pensions can make up a significant percentage of the organisations overall costs. It is important that social enterprises manage their pension costs and safeguard themselves against associated risks to protect the future sustainability of the organisation.

With the roll out of the auto-enrolment pension obligations, many smaller organisations have seen an increase in pension costs and contribution obligations. We provide strategic pension advice to social enterprises to ensure they are in compliance with auto-enrolment obligations and are avoiding costly non-compliance penalties.

Social businesses will often participate in one of the public sector pension schemes. When a social business has spun out from local government, it is usually a requirement that they participate in the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS).

When a social enterprise is bidding for local government contracts, it is important that they are aware of and understand the pension obligations and associated risks they may be taking on, such as variable contribution rates, additional contributions and exit payments.

At Anthony Collins Solicitors, our experienced social business solicitors have extensive experience in advising and negotiating detailed pension agreements in outsourcing situations within the social business sector. We work in partnership with contractors in the social business sector to ensure that they understand the agreements they are entering into and that they are safeguarding themselves against associated risks.

Strategic pension advice for social businesses

Our experienced social business team regularly work with social enterprises to guide them and support them on all aspects of strategic pension advice for social businesses, including:

• Advice on additional pension contributions to LGPS that can be payable in redundancy and restructuring situations and when staff take early release of pension benefits on grounds of ill health.
• Advise LGPS employers on how best to manage change programmes to minimise the impact this has on redundancy and business efficiency.
• Assist employers to ensure that decisions on ill health benefits are appropriately managed to avoid unnecessary costs.
• Help LGPS manage their cost pressures by ensuring that they have robust policies in place, dealing with the exercise of discretions under the LGPS regulations.
• Create policies to outline how certain discretions will be exercised, as well as advising on the exercise of discretions.
• Support LGPS employers and pension funds to manage appeals, under the internal dispute resolution procedure.
• Advising social businesses on their auto-enrolment obligations, whether staff should be enrolled or not, either because their pay varies or because they are not a typical type of worker.

Our advice is clear and practical and our extensive experience and sector knowledge means that we are able to advise quickly and cost efficiently, allowing time to be focused elsewhere and minimising the risk of applications to the Pensions Ombudsman.