But millions also left behind. The Pension Regulator has released their monthly declaration of compliance report for November.
The big headline is that we now have 7,050,000 new people saving for retirement as a result of auto-enrolment. 341,495 employers have declared their auto-enrolment compliance. This accounts for 23.5 million workers of which; 7,050,000 have been auto-enrolled; 9,806,000 were already active members of a qualifying scheme and 6,290,000 have missed out.
The regulator also indicates that 700,000 small employers are due to stage in the year, meaning the number employers to be enrolling their staff automatically will breach 1 million.
Nathan Long Senior Pension Analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown; ‘The Government can afford to feel content as the collective number of people newly saving for retirement smashes through the seven million barrier. Next year is huge in the overall success of project auto-enrolment. Not only will 700,000 small employers become responsible for enrolling their staff into pension saving, we will also have the first review of auto-enrolment.
The success is not just the number new to pensions, but also a raised awareness of retirement saving as a whole. There are also some apparent failures, as part time and self-employed workers continue to miss out. The review may address this deficiency, but in the meantime part-time workers should ask to opt in to their company pension scheme and the self-employed should look to start a personal pension. That way both groups will be moving in the right direction.’
