The Pensions Regulator has begun carrying out spot checks in Gwent to ensure employers are complying with their pension duties.

Inspection teams are visiting businesses in Newport and Caerphilly as well as in Cardiff, the Vale of Glamorgan and Rhondda Cynon Taf, to check that qualifying staff are being given the workplace pensions they are entitled to.

The move is part of a nationwide enforcement campaign which began in London in April to ensure employers are meeting their automatic enrolment duties correctly.

This is the first time these checks have been done in Wales.

The checks will help TPR understand whether employers are facing any unnecessary challenges that we can help them with, such as helping them improve their systems.

But they will also highlight employers who have not taken the required steps to become or remain compliant, paving the way for enforcement action.

Darren Ryder, TPR’s director of automatic enrolment, said: "The vast majority of employers are continuing to become compliant ahead of their deadline but these visits help us to identify why some have not, so we can take action where we need to.

"Every employer has workplace pension duties and we are determined that every worker gets the pension they are entitled to.

"Automatic enrolment is not an option, it’s the law. Where we find employers are not complying with the law, we will use our powers to make them comply."

More than 690,000 employers across the UK have met their automatic enrolment duties, with more than eight million workers given workplace pensions as a result.

Data to the end of April 2017 reveals that 790 employers in Newport and 920 in Caerphilly have met their automatic enrolment duties.

TPR teams will begin visiting other towns and cities across the UK in the coming weeks.