Help! I am a nanny and my ex-employer didn’t enrol me into a pension

My previous employer did not automatically register me for an occupational pension scheme.

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

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

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

They also told me to contact the Pension Pegulator. I did this and they said 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 replies: While the law requiring employers to enroll certain employees for a pension has been very successful, not every employer has fulfilled their legal obligations and it seems that you have missed something as a result.

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

Over the next five years, the obligation to enroll workers at over £10,000 a year was steadily extended to medium-sized employers and eventually to small employers, including those who employ nannies.

This means that when you started working with your previous employer in 2018, they were already required by law to register you for a pension if you received more than £10,000 a year.

There were no special rules for nannies, except that small employers were involved in the scheme later than larger employers.

There were also no special rules about the age of nannies, except that the legal requirement to enroll an employee only applies to those over 22.

In summary, if you made more than £10,000 and you were 22 years of age or older, your employer was breaking the law if they didn’t register you for an occupational pension within three months of you starting work.

By not doing this, she has deprived you of the contributions she should have made in retirement on your behalf, as well as the growth of the investments on that money since then.

For what you can do yourself to make up for it, it is certainly wise to contact your former employer directly first.

I see you’re not getting a response so I suggest sending a final email stating that if she doesn’t straighten things out, you’ll be forced to file a complaint with the Pension Supervisor (TPR), who has the power to impose fines for non-compliance.

You could mention that TPR has handed out more than 51,000 such fines in the past year according to page 20 of their latest annual report.

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

While I can understand not wanting to create ill will with your former employer, now that she clearly knows she’s broken the law, it’s unacceptable that she’s trying to evade her responsibilities.

If you go through this, not only should you get the missing contributions you owe, but any prospective nanny employed by the same employer should hopefully find that they don’t have to struggle to get what’s rightfully theirs.

Listen to our special podcast where Steve Webb answers readers’ retirement questions on the player below, or on Apple Podcasts, audio tree, Spotify or visit our This is the Money Podcast Page.