The majority of employers believe that compulsion is the only solution to the UK's pension crisis.

A survey conducted by the pension adviser AWD Chas de Vere Consulting has found that 68 per cent of employers believe that making properly funded pensions compulsory in the workplace is the only antidote to the pensions meltdown in the UK.

The support for compulsion shows strong apparent support for the Government's pensions reforms which will see the start of the implementation of auto-enrolment by as early as 2011.

The research also found that Fifty-eight per cent of respondents said they believe they have a paternalistic duty to provide their staff with a decent pension scheme, compared to only 15 per cent who do not agree that they had any such duty.

Param Basi, technical director at AWD Chase de Vere Consulting, said: "With the UK facing a vast pension black hole the government needs to pull its finger out and back full pension compulsion in the workplace while there is still the appetite by employers to provide workplace pensions.

"Our survey shows that employers really want to provide pensions, but with competitive pressures mounting there is a real risk that many will pull back from pension provision without full compulsion. Making pensions compulsory in the workplace is the only way to create a level playing field between employers in the UK and to keep the cost of pension provision off the public purse."

Basi added that the most recent re-brand of the Government's workplace pension initiative is the third iteration, and that rather than "constantly changing the name, implementation date and contribution rates, they really need to just get on with it before it's too late".

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