New data from The Pensions Regulator has highlighted the increase in workplace pension participation following the introduction of auto-enrolment.

The Declaration of compliance report consisted of 30.86m workers from 1.36m employers that have confirmed that they have met their duties by completing their declaration of compliance.

Between July 2012 and August 2018, 9.89m workers were auto-enrolled into workplace pension schemes, while a further 11.4m were already active members of a qualifying scheme. Around 438,000 jobholders have DB or hybrid scheme transitional arrangements applied to them.

These figures have all improved from this time last year, when 8.53m workers were auto-enrolled into workplace schemes, 10.27m were already active members of a qualifying scheme and 434,000 had DB or hybrid scheme transitional arrangements.

Royal London pension specialist, Helen Morrissey commented: “Today’s auto-enrolment statistics continue to show the important role this policy has played in boosting participation in workplace pension schemes.”

Additionally, since 15 September 2015, 572,000 workers were automatically re-enrolled into their schemes and over 15m were already active members of a qualifying scheme on their re-enrolment date.

Morrissey continued: “Once we get people into pension schemes we need to make sure they stay in for the long term and that is where re-enrolment has an important part to play. Participation rates are already high among the eligible population but re-enrolment will be vital in catching those people who have opted out in the past and engaging them with their pensions.”

Despite the improvements, there are still concerns as 9.14m have not been auto-enrolled or are ineligible, such as the self-employed, young people and low earners. This is an increase from 7.47m in August 2017, although the amount of workers that compliance has been declared for also increased from 26.7m to 30.86m.

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