Nearly one million (983,446) UK employers have completed their pensions auto-enrolment duties as at December 2017, according to research by The Pensions Regulator (TPR).
Its Declaration of compliance report, which is based on information submitted by employers when they complete their declaration of compliance documentation, also found that around 9.2 million employees are now saving for their retirement after being automatically enrolled into a workplace pension since 2012.
Between September 2015 and December 2017, 37,288 employers confirmed they have completed their pensions automatic re-enrolment duties to remain compliant. This means that 545,000 eligible employees have been successfully re-enrolled into their workplace pension over this period.
Tom McPhail, head of policy at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “Auto-enrolment has been remarkably successful, so far. Everyone involved deserves credit, the politicians, the pension [organisations] and the one million employers who have actually set up pensions for their employees and who are now helping them save for retirement.
“There is however still more work to be done. We need to keep working on membership numbers, on contribution rates and on member engagement. In particular, the rules should be developed to give individuals the freedom to choose their own pension provider, rather than being forced to accept the scheme chosen for them by their employer. This would improve engagement, strengthen competition and cut down on the number of small pension pots. It would be possible to do this while keeping all the default auto-enrolment systems in place, so giving employees the best of both worlds; defaults for the disengaged and choice for those who want it.”