Who cares about pensions?

All employers will need to soon, warns creative business consultant Zena Bruges – is your studio ready?

You and your team are young, creative and carefree; the last thing you want to think about is pensions. This, however, would be a mistake – as you could end up breaking the law.

Since the Pensions Act 2008 came into effect in 2012, every UK employer is required to put certain employees into a pension scheme and make a contribution, a process called Auto-Enrolment. Big employers with thousands of staff had to act immediately, but smaller employers such as 99 per cent of British businesses, and therefore most design studios, were given at least two years before having to introduce it. So naturally, with many more interesting things to do that seemed more urgent, most people forgot all about it.