Report on planning for auto-enrolment shows mixed results

According to a report from the National Employment Savings Trust (NEST), nearly two-thirds of people agree with the principle of automatic enrolment, which requires businesses to enrol employees who are not already saving for retirement into a workplace pension.

The scheme was rolled out for the UK’s largest companies in October 2012, but many more organisations will have to adopt the process this year, and the NEST Insight report has found that of the employers with more than 5,000 workers who said that they were ready for automatic enrolment; nearly half had spent between ten and 18 months preparing.

Despite this figure though, more than half of employers with fewer than 5,000 workers had not confirmed their auto-enrolment provider.

When questioned on their concerns, employers cited administration, pension scheme choice and communicating the changes to their workforce as top of their list.

Commenting on the findings, NEST Chief Executive, Tim Jones, said:

“Given the current economic constraints on the household budget you might have expected opposition from consumers for automatic enrolment, but our research strongly suggests that they welcome the policy.

“A fear of making the wrong decision has put many people off joining a pension in the past. However, the knowledge that their pension is being taken care of through a low-maintenance approach driven by their employer gives savers peace of mind. Whether the level of contributions will be enough to meet their aspirations is a conversation for further down the line, but automatic enrolment is a great start.”