Help! I am a nanny and my ex-employer did not put me on pension

My previous employer did not automatically accept me into a company pension scheme.

I am a nanny and as I understand it when the occupational pension scheme came into force nannies were not eligible and when it was then decided that nannies were eligible this was done by working from the youngest to the oldest nannies became.

I worked for my previous employer for four years until recently. I spoke to my former employer about this situation and she said it was an honest mistake and that she will fix it. Since then, she has stopped responding to emails and text messages.

Loss of contributions: I am a nanny and my ex-employer did not register me for a pension – what can I do?

I spoke to Acas and they said to contact the Pensions Ombudsman, which I did. They said to email my former employer a letter explaining what I was doing and that they had to reply to me within eight weeks.

They also told me to contact the Pensions Pegulator. I did this and they said I would have to report my former employer for not registering me and they would be fined.

I don’t want to get her in trouble. What do you suggest I do first?

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Steve Webb responds: Although the law obliging employers to put certain employees on a pension has been very successful, not every employer has complied with their legal obligations and you seem to have missed out as a result.

Coincidentally, this week marks the 10th anniversary of the start of ‘automatic enrolment’, which began in October 2012 and began with Britain’s largest employers.

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Over the next five years, the requirement to hire workers in excess of £10,000 a year was steadily extended to medium-sized employers and eventually to small employers, including those employing a nanny.

This means that when you started working for your previous employer in 2018, they were already legally obliged to register you for a pension if you were paid more than £10,000 a year.

There were no special arrangements for nannies, apart from the fact that small employers entered the system later than larger employers.

There were also no special regulations for the age of childminders, apart from the fact that the legal obligation to take on a worker only applies from the age of 22.

In summary, if you earned over £10,000 and were at least 22 years old, your employer is breaking the law if they have not accepted you on an occupational pension within three months of starting work.

By not doing so, she has withheld from you the contributions she should have paid into a pension on your behalf, and the investment growth on that money since.

In any case, what you can do to remedy the situation is to first contact your former employer directly.

I see you don’t get a reply so I suggest a final email stating that you will be forced to file a complaint with the Pensions Regulatory Authority (TPR) which has the power to penalize employers for non-compliance. attention.

You might mention that TPR issued over 51,000 such fines last year, according to page 20 of their latest annual report.

If you still don’t get a response, you’ll need to decide whether to file a complaint.

While I can understand not wanting to create resentment with your former employer, now that she knows for sure that she broke the law, it is unacceptable for her to try to shirk her responsibilities.

Going through with this should not only get you the owed dues you are owed, but any future nanny employed by the same employer should hopefully find that she doesn’t have to fight to get what is rightfully hers .

Listen to our special podcast of Steve Webb answering readers’ pensions questions on the player below or on Apple Podcasts, Audioboom, Spotify or visit our This is Money podcast page.