5 Million Workers Now Automatically Enrolled Into a Workplace Pension

The number of workers automatically enrolled into a workplace pension across the UK has now reached five million. This marks a milestone halfway point of policy roll-out which will see around 10 million automatically enrolled by 2018.

Liberal Democrats in government introduced automatic enrolment, which their boss and the government pay in to, in order to give people the confidence to save for retirement.

The five millionth worker to join the cast of those automatically enrolled into a workplace pension is 23-year-old Siobhan Sharp, marketing officer at the Rose Theatre in South London.

Along with the milestone, Liberal Democrat Pensions Minister Steve Webb is announcing that Autumn 2016 will see the launch of a new system in which small pension pots will automatically follow workers from job to job.

Commenting, Steve Webb said: "When we came into Government, the number of people saving into a workplace pension was low and declining. But our reforms are revolutionising the pensions landscape, making pension saving normal again, and helping millions more people save towards a secure and comfortable retirement.

"As people typically have 11 different jobs over their working life, we need to build on the achievements of automatic enrolment with a scheme that enables people to keep their savings in one place, and I am pleased to confirm we are on track to achieve this by autumn 2016.