UK. Record Numbers Saving into Workplace Pensions
More than three-quarters of British employees are now members of a workplace pension scheme, according to new figures from the Office for National Statistics. And for the first time, occupational defined contribution (DC) pensions have overtaken all other types of pension, including defined benefit (DB) or final salary schemes.
The proportion of employees in a workplace pension hit 77%, the highest since comparable records began in 1997 – it marks a huge advance on the 47% in these schemes when auto-enrolment started in 2012. At the time pensions minister Steve Webb, said: “Few policies affect as many people, and this will be a truly radical social change.”
And for the first time, in public sector schemes at least, there is no gender savings gap. In private sector schemes, however, women lag men in pension take-up: 77% of men are signed up to company pension schemes, against 69% of women.
With the decline of final salary pension schemes, auto-enrolment was designed to widen the net of pension savers – instead of having to opt in, employees were automatically signed up and would have to actively choose to drop out.
Read more @Morning Star
