Is the end in sight?

In England (and Wales, and probably Scotland and Northern Ireland too) it is a legal requirement that an employer with five or more employees provides those employees with access to pension provision. This had completely slipped the minds of all involved when the Housing Society completed the last development and employed the third caretaker, bringing the number of staff up to five. Indeed, it was not until we took on a part-time handyman that it suddenly dawned on me that we should do something. The fact that two of our employees were of an age to draw the state pension, and that three were part-timers, had no bearing on the matter. Nor was it of any importance that none of our employees actually wanted access to pension facilities. As it happened, before i could do anything about it, we 'lost' two caretakers and were down to four staff for a while. Eventually we took on a new caretaker to cover the work previously done by two - and we were back up to five. Then the new caretaker asked - yes, asked - about pensions. And it was down to me to do something about it.

My first port of call was our insurance brokers, who wanted £350 just to send some paperwork. I told them what to do with their papers and looked in Yellow Pages where found an insurance company claiming to provide stakeholder pensions (which is what we need). I rang them and after playing musical chairs for some twenty minutes, was promised that they would send the necessary paperwork. Three phone calls later and still no paperwork.

I looked on a Government web site where there was a list of all stakeholder pension providers. As I worked my way down the list I discovered that something like half of them were refusing to take on any more business, but one well-known was apparently happy to do so. I went to their web site and completed the registration form. Since then, nothing.

Two weeks ago I returned to the Government site and eventually found another company which has lately been advertising heavily on television. I rang their nearest branch and was promised a phone call back to arrange an appointment. It came! Then the rep rang to rearrange the appointment. The new time is this afternoon. Could I be nearly there?