On the go: A record 9,937,000 workers have been auto-enrolled into a pension scheme since 2012 according to data from the Pensions Regulator’s monthly auto-enrolment compliance statistics released on November 13.
Employers have a duty to re-enrol workers every three years and 584,000 workers have been re-enrolled since September 2015.
Most pension experts believe that the auto-enrolment programme has been successful but there are glaring gaps in provision for such groups as the self-employed, low-paid workers and workers with multiple jobs.
Commenting on today’s figures, Helen Morrissey, pension specialist at Royal London, said: “We need to make sure it works for more people, including the self-employed.”
Steven Cameron, pensions director at Aegon, agreed that there is a gaping hole in the retirement prospects of in the growing army of self-employed and gig economy workers.
“The government needs to look for a solution along the lines of auto-enrolment that makes pension saving the default for all such workers if we’re to avoid them retiring as second class pension citizens with nothing more than a state pension,” he said.
Contractors and consultants working for a single employer within the private sector as employees will be taxed as employees from April 2020. This is another neglected group. Cameron said: “They should receive the same benefits as employees, including being auto-enrolled into a workplace pension with an employer contribution.”
The Department for Work and Pensions is expected to publish paper this winter setting out the government’s approach to increasing pension participation and savings persistency among the self-employed.
