Payment breaches in 2022 and 2024

FOI reference - FOI-275
Date - 20 June 2024

Request

I would like to understand the following under Freedom of Information for the period 22 June 2022 to 22 May 2024

1. Total number of 'live' companies in UK under TPR jurisdiction with pension schemes.
2. Number of companies in UK who have failed to comply with the legal due date on 24 consecutive monthly occasions when submitting full employee contributions within Pension Act requirements (i.e. 22nd month following).
3. Number of companies in UK who have had 3 or more 90 day payment breach referrals to TPR from Pension Trustee providers within this timeframe (ie. More than 90 days over legal due date).

In relation to Questions 1 and 2, you kindly provided the following clarification:

1. Total number of live companies say at 22 June 2022 and 22 May 2024 will be perfectly fine. A simple 'total' number for both dates is more than helpful.
2. What I am trying to understand is how many companies in the UK, have failed to deliver against the legal due date for contributions (i.e. 22nd month following) on 24 consecutive months within this timeframe. The number needed, is how many companies have technically breached their first obligation in your guidelines, whether they paid later on, or not at all in the future, or part paid, it is irrelevant to the statistic I am trying to understand. The measure I am looking for is; have they complied with the Pensions law and your requirements at the first stage.

Response

1. Total number of 'live' companies in UK under TPR jurisdiction with pension schemes
   
   1. at 22 June 2022 - 1,596,979
   2. at 22 May 2024 - 1,476,717
2. Number of companies in UK who have failed to comply with the legal due date on 24 consecutive monthly occasions when submitting full employee contributions within Pension Act requirements (i.e.22nd month following) 3,959
   
   1. 0.25%
   2. 0.27%
3. Number of companies in UK who have had 3 or more 90 day payment breach referrals to TPR from Pension Trustee providers within this timeframe (i.e. More than 90 days over legal due date) 67,847
   
   1. 4.25%
   2. 4.60%

Please note the following additional context.

• Our responses to Questions 2 and 3 are based on the data we have from late payment reports submitted to us by pension scheme providers.
• Whilst the 22nd day of the month following deductions from pay is an overarching deadline for payment of contributions, employers will often agree earlier schedule due dates with their workplace pension scheme provider. Late payment reports may therefore be submitted to TPR for failures that occur concerning agreed due days other than the 22nd day of the month following deductions from pay.
• Many employers will have weekly rather than monthly due dates agreed and TPR may therefore receive weekly reports of late payments for some employers. These are included in the figures provided.
• Specifically regarding Question 2, over half of the records have some indication of insolvency based on the Companies House data for those employers. Schemes are nevertheless required to report such employers under our Code.

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