JOHCM's Beagles: Beware of auto-enrolment's effect on consumer

The government's auto-enrolment legislation may have a more significant effect on consumers' disposable income than planned government cuts, according to JO Hambro Capital Management's Clive Beagles.

Beagles (pictured), who runs the £1.3bn JOHCM UK Equity Income fund with co-manager James Lowen, said the potential impact of auto-enrolment on consumers has not being fully recognised and could potentially dip into incomes more than initially expected. "Auto-enrolment is taking away 2% of salaries, and people have to elect to opt out," he said. "It is a bigger issue at the margin than things like child benefit cuts [in terms of its impact on consumers]." The rollout of the process, which make it a legal requirement for UK employers to automatically enrol staff into their qualifyin...