Data from TPR’s quarterly compliance and enforcement bulletin for the period January to March 2015 shows that the first escalating penalty notices have been issued, on four occasions. This is a penalty of between £50 and £10,000 per day (depending on size) for failure to comply with a statutory notice.

In addition the TPR figures for the first quarter show a total of 213 compliance notices and 198 fixed penalty notices were handed out, along with nine unpaid contributions notices.

David White, managing director of  AE provider, Creative Auto Enrolment, said:  ‘In this period we’ve seen an increase of almost 120% when it comes to fixed penalty notices – and over the last six months that figure is even bigger, with the number of notices rocketing from just three to 367.’

‘I fully expect this to continue as the UK’s 1.2m SMEs stage over the next three years. Our recent research showed that just 24% of these businesses will find time to implement auto enrolment and make it a success.’

TPR says it made ‘targeted visits’ to a number of employers in February to assess how auto enrolment is operating and identify any challenges.  It said one theme identified as a result was reliance by employers on intermediaries to help them comply with their duties, with over a third of those visited using a financial adviser to help support and guide them through the process.

TPR says this is consistent with its research showing eight in ten smaller medium and small employers have consulted an adviser or will do so, along with two thirds of micro companies.

While TPR says IFAs and accountants are the main types of adviser used, it also states: ‘However, gaps in knowledge remain, in particular among accountants and bookkeepers who continue to have the lowest level of understanding of all intermediaries about automatic enrolment.’

Amongst common errors identified in visits were employers assuming that the only duty that applies to them is automatically enrolling staff meeting the age and earning criteria for eligibility. TPR said they overlooked two other categories of staff, namely those with a right to join a pension scheme and staff with a right to opt in to an automatic enrolment pension scheme.

In addition, some employers failed to grasp they are responsible for calculating contributions and making the correct deductions from staff, and not the pension scheme.

White said: ‘These figures once again prove that businesses are struggling and that it’s essential for employers and their advisers to find support to help them through the process. You cannot risk getting auto enrolment wrong.’

Separately, a report from the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) based on a survey of over 1,000 adults has found that fewer than one in three (29%)  think recent pensions policy changes have made them more confident about the future of their pension savings. Over half (56%) feel more uncertain about what the future holds for their retirement.

Joanne Segars, NAPF’s chief executive, said: ‘Thanks to automatic enrolment, 5.2m people are saving in a workplace pension today who were not five years ago. But our research shows there is a very real discrepancy between this positive progress and how confident, or not, people feel about saving for a pension.

‘We believe this is a result of pensions policy driven by short-term priorities and political expediency creating a feeling of uncertainty among many employers that contribute to pensions and the savers that rely on them.’

NAPF, along with the Association of British Insurers (ABI) and the TUC, is launching a campaign to call for a standing independent retirement savings commission which would be charged with ensuring the long-term interests of savers are put at the centre of any future pensions policy. The group says that political interference risks distorting the market and makes it hard for people to make financial plans for later life.

The Pensions Regulator’s new online step-by-step guide to help business advisers assist their employer clients with automatic enrolment is available here