The millionth UK employee has now been automatically enrolled into a workplace pension.
The landmark figure was announced by the Pensions Regulator on 19 July, nine months after the largest firms began automatically enrolling employees into workplace pension schemes.
The initiative is being introduced for all employers on a phased basis, with all UK employers brought on board by 2018.
Charles Counsell, director of automatic enrolment at the Pensions Regulator, which supports employers in meeting their automatic enrolment responsibilities, said: “This milestone is a real credit to the hundreds of employers who have helped make the early implementation of automatic enrolment a success.
“There is still much to be done, with the challenge of large numbers of medium employers due to automatically enrol their workers early next year.”
Under auto-enrolment, employers will be required by law to pay into a workplace pension for those workers who are automatically enrolled and who do not opt out.
Employers will automatically enrol workers into a workplace pension:
- who are not already in a qualifying pension scheme
- who are aged 22 or over and are under State Pension age
- whose earnings exceed a specified level (£9,440 a year in 2013-14)
- work or usually work in the UK.
The minimum contribution rates that an employer must pay into their worker’s pension scheme are being introduced gradually.
The minimum contributions are currently a total contribution of two per cent with at least a one per cent employer contribution.
This will rise to a minimum contribution of eight per cent by October 2018, with a minimum employer contribution of three per cent.
