DWP makes fresh pension push with Theo Paphitis advertising campaign to get small business auto-enrolling workers
The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) is relaunching its pensions advertising campaign starring Dragons’ Den entrepreneur Theo Paphitis in a new push to get small companies auto-enrolling staff in workplace pensions.
The campaign will rework the previous creative used in 2012 when a £3.5m campaign first launched, as the government seeks to target businesses employing less than 50 staff and get them on board with the pension changes.
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The DWP estimates there are still 1.3m small and micro businesses still not signed up, while 47,000 large and medium-sized employers have enrolled their workers in a pension scheme. The second phase of auto enrollment kicked off last month following the initial roll-out for larger firms and more than nine million workers are expected to be enrolled in a workplace pension by the deadline of 2018.
The “I’m in” campaign will go out on TV from today and includes radio, press and online ads.
The government department will increase its focus online, particularly LinkedIn, to directly engage with small business owners.
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“With more than five million people automatically enrolled into a workplace pension, we have made great strides forward in a short space of time, but there is still much hard work to do,” said pensions minister Ros Altmann.
“The switch to small and micro firms brings with it new challenges, which is why we’re working closely with business organisations and others to ensure they have the right level of support at every step of the way to help them through the process.”