More than 1.6 million people have started saving for retirement under the government’s auto-enrolment initiative.
The rollout of automatic enrolment of eligible employees into qualifying workplace pension schemes began on 1 October 2012 with the largest employers.
All employers will be brought on board by 2018, giving up to 11 million people the chance to save for retirement, many for the first time.
To mark the one year anniversary, Pensions Minister Steve Webb and businessman Theo Paphitis visited a Greggs bakery on 10 October. Greggs has featured in a government advertising campaign to promote auto-enrolment, alongside Mr Paphitis.
Mr Webb said: “Over the last year we have instigated a quiet revolution that has heralded the biggest change to pensions in a century.
“Already over 1.6 million people have been automatically enrolled and the early signs are that this is an enormously successful scheme.”
In August, Department for Work and Pensions research among the 50 biggest employers showed just nine per cent of employees had chosen to opt out but Greggs revealed that its opt-out figure was even lower, at just 6.5 per cent.
Greggs’ company secretary Jonathan Jowett said: “We are delighted to have auto-enrolled 7,466 members of our workforce with such low opt-out rates, particularly from younger workers who are starting to save for retirement early.”
