The Pension Regulator’s latest figures show an increase in the number of auto-enrolled workers in November
17 December 2019
In its most recent Automatic enrolment declaration of the compliance report, The Pension Regulator (TPR) showed how the number of workers being auto-enrolled into workplace pension schemes had climbed steadily. 17,000 more workers were auto-enrolled in the month of November, bringing the tally to 10.203 million enrolled workers.
This follows several increases observed in recent months, with 16,000 newly enrolled workers reported in September and a further 21,000 added in October.
Despite this positive news, there are still actually more individuals not being enrolled into pension schemes than those who are being enrolled. November saw an extra 30,000 non-enrolled workers against the 17,000 who were enrolled, and this was a further increase on the 28,000 not enrolled in the preceding month of October. If the trend continues, the number of non-enrolled workers will be close to the ten million mark at the end of 2020 as 9.58 million staff members are not currently registered as being in a workplace pension scheme.
The TPR states:
“While the information is the actual data received by us, there will be employers that have reached their staging date, who have automatically enrolled their eligible jobholders and who have not yet completed their declaration.
The figure for eligible jobholders that have been automatically enrolled is therefore likely to be higher than that shown in this report.”
The Pensions Bill as proposed by the Conservatives was recently shelved due to the call for a general election but will be revisited now that the party has been re-elected. The Bill, first mentioned in the original Queen’s speech and referred to in the Conservative manifesto, proposes that TPR will have greater powers to tackle irresponsible employers and to protect savers. This will ensure greater compliance across the board with auto-enrolment legislation and may prompt a surge in the number of employees who are reported as being auto-enrolled.
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