Who would want to be an employer these days?

The Government is absolutely useless at anything to do with Tax, Benefits or Pensions, and there is noone to complain to effectively in most cases! They do what they bloody want!

Rules and Regulations are often geared to the larger companies but the smaller ones - often without such experienced finance or HR staff found in large corporates - have to spend ages sorting stuff out rather than working on the business and contributing to the country's economy.

Taking on an employee is expensive and getting rid of one is even more expensive both in time and money. Small company bosses often work much longer hours than their employees and as has been said can be 'too nice' and be taken advantage of. We all want a happy working environment but it's a steep learning curve these days for small companies - one step out of line and you're in trouble!

That is appalling. Do you know who made the complaint and on what they based their belief you had not been making payments?

Could you speak to your MP about it?

gillybob - don't let the beggars grind you down!

This does not surprise me Gillybob! I feel sorry for small businesses these days and you are right to put the letter on the noticeboard as I am sure they will not have explained their error in full to your employees!

I know that jenpax the incompetent pension providers take the vast proportion of the payments made. I have tried to pin them down to find out how much is actually really invested and guess what? They can’t tell me. It is the PPI of the future and a giant con.

Employees often won’t benefit from these silly schemes either! For many older employees in low pay jobs, the amounts being paid in by the employer and by themselves will not yield a liveable pension? and they will still need benefits to be topped up in old age. In addition many employees on very small wages(minimum wage) can not afford the compulsory wage deductions each month

I’m with you all the way gerry86 . The employees have definitely got the upper hand. My DH at 66, works 10 times harder than any of ours (for far less pay). I honestly can’t remember the last time any of them put a full week in and the excuses are like the best work of fiction. This workplace pension is a burden to us small employers as we are forced to pay it (without choice) on top of the employment tax (otherwise known as employers NI).

This situation and the nasty threatening letters has once again made me question why the hell we out ourselves through it .

It is the new workplace pension (the pathetic advert with the monster on TV) wheniwasyourage so sadly I’m stuck with them. Most of the big providers aren’t interested in small accounts (meaning small businesses) as they take most of the payments made towards their costs first. As do the workplace pension scheme but they are forced to take the smallest employers. This is why I mentioned it being the PPI of the future, because everyone is conned into giving up a percentage of their salary to line someone else’s pockets .

I hope the employees don’t believe it either but sadly employers are always the enemy and I anticipate at least one of them will be stirring up trouble .

Totally agree with the heading of your post gillybob, it's getting worse and worse. I fume every month when I have to put the pension contributions through, they have doubled in the past month and will be going up again in the future. This is more money we just have to find as another overhead. Please don't get me started on all the other things that have been imposed on us especially employees being able to work on after 65 which is fine if they can do the job they are employed for but we have two who just can't which puts strain on everyone else but of course we daren't suggest they leave as no doubt it would be straight to a tribunal.

gillybob

What a bunch of plonkers!! I hope your employees know you too well to have believed the rubbish they were being told. Can you change your pension provider, or are you stuck with them? (Sorry, but I have no idea how these arrangements are made, from either side).

Crikey paddyann we could get together and write a book ! The crap we have put up with over the years . Years ago an old guy from business link who had run his own business for years, told me and DH that we were “far too nice to be in business” “sadly” he said “they’ll eat you for dinner” .
I’m not sure who “ they” were, the employees, the authorities, the customers, the suppliers, or all of them ? He was probably right !

I am printing the letter out in BOLD and putting it on the noticeboard on Monday morning and I am going to personally draw everyone’s attention to it . I can’t stop reading it and still can’t believe how they think this half hearted apology makes everything okay .

Thank you again everyone . Again gransnet at its absolute best .

Could you write a reasonably worded letter to your local paper, saying that you are a local employer and fear that your reputation has suffered from these failures so you want the true situation to be known? I think this would do you nothing but good.

My DD employs several people and I hear much of this red tape that builds up and frustrates - but red tape that is in error is above and beyond. Does this company have some sort of professional organisation to whom you can write?

You really did not need all this!

Never been an employer but often wonder how decent employers cope. The stress gillybob deserves more than an apology they should have to declare why they made such an awful error.

I love having my own businesses BUT staff is and always has been a nightmare .Part of the problem is we are too nice .At one point we had two members of staff having messy divorces who spent more time with lawyers than they did at work AND still expected a full pay at the end of the month.That lasted for several months,others who helped themselves to equipment and supplies to do homers and who used company cars to run their families hundreds of miles on weekends .
The final straw was when we sold a large chunk of the business to a multi national and rather than pay off staff used the proceeds to pay them until we could get a different line established ...sadly that avenue wasn't vable so we had to let 3 people go.
They took us to a tribunal ...and won ! Despite us paying them to basically do nothing for 6 months AND use all the profits from the sale to do so.
The strange thing ...or maybe not given the circumstances wa that they ALL told the tribunal that they would be delighted to work for us again and that it was the best job they'd ever had....lol.
Shortly after that we cut the workforce to 6 people ,3 were family.Its been taht way now for over 20 years and much simpler .

Rant away gilly, agree with everything said here. Make double sure your employees know where the fault lies and consider if there is any action you could take, maybe the CAB could advise. Simply wrong. Try to relax now and enjoy your weekend, you deserve it.

I was thinking of doing something exactly like that OldMeg .

Thank you for reading and responding everyone . I feel better for my rant !

Print the letter out. Enlarge it on your photocopier and frame it. Then cut out a big arrow to highlight/pinpoint it and stick it on your staff notice board or similar (staff loo?)

Oh and the wording suggests that there were other companies affected too .

I get the impression that they have already informed them Nanabilly and Elegran having read their “ formal apology” again it appears that this was done on 13th June so before I thought .
God knows what they must be thinking ? I can guess though .

Yes, tell your employees at once, before they get round to informing them.

If I were you I would also be looking for their website/Facebook page/entries in trade lists etc and exposing this nonsense to the world. It is a downright libel for them to write to your employees with this lie and report you falsely to the pensions regulator, and could have done untold harm to your business. It could almost have been done with malice.

When you write to them next (as I am sure you will!) tell them you are consulting your lawyer with a view to suing them. Put the wind up them for a change.

That is truly disgusting how could they make such a drastic error . I hope the person who did this gets some training or removed from doing it ever again.
The best thing you can do is to get your team of staff together and let them know exactly what has happened as I bet the second letter to them takes longer to get to them than the first.I
What incompetence.!!

Thank you for taking the time to read (and respond to) my rant Maggie I really appreciate it .

I’m so angry thinking that my employees must’ve been muttering behind my back for an entire week ( surprised one in particular hasn’t confronted me about it ) and their bloody apology just doesn’t cover it !

Rant away, gillybob! What ruddy incompetence. The first error on their part was bad enough, but going ahead and contacting the pensions regulator and (worse!) your employees before carrying out their full investigation is indefensible. Especially given the timescale - you should have had time to respond to/refute their first allegation, and that should have been several working days.

I do hope you’re reporting them now, to their regulatory body.