Auto-enrolment has turned workplace pension saving into the norm for eligible employees, but the latest data shows where coverage is thinning and how the Pensions Commission is reframing the debate for employers and their advisers.

In reading this article you will understand:

  • What the latest DWP and Pensions Regulator data shows about auto-enrolment participation, opt-outs and employer compliance.
  • Which groups remain outside or under-served by auto-enrolment, and why the Pensions (Extension of Automatic Enrolment) Act 2023 has still not been commenced.
  • How the Pensions Commission’s interim findings and the Pension Schemes Act 2026 bear on the advice you give employer clients now.

In 2025, 90% of employees eligible for automatic enrolment were saving into a workplace pension, according to DWP figures published in July 2026; that’s 22.6 million people, up around 600,000 on the previous year. In 2012, before auto-enrolment began, the equivalent figure was 55%. By any measure, AE has done what it was designed to do. The harder question for corporate advisers in 2026 is what it doesn’t do, because the gaps are increasingly the focus of policy and, sooner or later, of employers’ own scheme reviews.

The Current Position

Staging ran from October 2012, starting with the largest employers, to February 2018, when every employer was in scope. DWP estimates that eligible employees saved £166.1bn into workplace pensions in 2025, £63.5bn more in real terms than in 2012.

The mechanics are unchanged going into 2026/27. The Government confirmed in December 2025 that the £10,000 earnings trigger and the £6,240 to £50,270 qualifying earnings band would be held at their 2025/26 levels. The Pensions Regulator’s declaration of compliance data shows more than 2.7 million employers had declared compliance by May 2026, with 11.45 million workers automatically enrolled and a further 1.08 million re-enrolled.

Persistence remains strong, but the latest figures include a small warning sign. DWP reports that among people newly starting to save, the share actively opting out has risen to around 11% to 12%, up from around 8% to 10% a year earlier, and the proportion of active savers stopping each quarter has also edged up, although DWP describes both as remaining low. Participation is also uneven by employer size: only around 55% of eligible staff at private sector micro employers with fewer than five staff are saving, compared with 91% at employers with 50 to 249 staff.

Who the System Misses

The Pensions Commission’s interim report, Pensions 2050: Evidence and Future Priorities, published on 19 May 2026, sets out the coverage gaps plainly. Around 14% of employees, about four million people, aren’t eligible for AE at all because of the age limits or the £10,000 trigger. Just 17% of self-employed people save into a pension, falling to 4% among those whose only income is from self-employment. Women in their late 50s have median private pension wealth around 48% lower than men of the same age, and the report flags participation gaps for carers, disabled people and some ethnic minority groups; DWP’s own data shows 67% of eligible Pakistani and Bangladeshi employees saving, well below the overall rate.

Multiple job holders are a long-standing blind spot. Someone earning under £10,000 in each of two jobs isn’t automatically enrolled in either, even if their combined pay is well above the trigger. The most recent official estimate, from 2017, put the number of multiple job holders aged 22 to State Pension age at around 975,000, roughly two thirds of them women. In all, the Commission estimates that 43% of working-age people, around 15 million, are undersaving for retirement.

Why the 2023 Act Hasn’t Moved

The Pensions (Extension of Automatic Enrolment) Act 2023 gives the Government power to lower the AE age from 22 to 18 and remove the lower earnings limit, so that contributions start from the first pound earned. It received Royal Assent in 2023 but has not been commenced, and there is no timetable. The Government’s position, stated in November 2024 and unchanged since, is that it will consider if and when to use the powers, balancing the benefit to savers against the effect on businesses. The Pensions Commission has listed AE eligibility, thresholds and minimum contributions among its priorities, with its final report due in spring 2027, and the Government has confirmed it currently has no plans to increase minimum AE contributions. That hasn’t closed the debate: on 16 September 2026 the Work and Pensions Committee, chaired by Debbie Abrahams, launched an inquiry into auto-enrolment contributions for low earners and their employers, looking at how a fairer split of contributions could secure a decent retirement income for lower-paid savers. Any change to who AE covers is therefore likely to follow the Commission’s recommendations rather than precede them.

The Commission itself was revived on 21 July 2025, with Baroness Jeannie Drake, Sir Ian Cheshire and Professor Nick Pearce as commissioners. Its terms of reference focus on adequacy to 2050, with particular attention to lower earners, women, the self-employed and carers; State Pension age is being looked at separately. For employers, that scope matters, because the groups the Commission is focused on are often the same staff a workplace scheme currently reaches least well.

What It Means for Advisers

For employer clients, the coverage question is less about compliance, which most have met, and more about who in their workforce is falling through the gaps. A scheme review is a good moment to check how many staff are below the trigger or under 22, whether the employer already enrols them voluntarily, and what opt-out and stop rates look like compared with the national picture. Rising opt-outs among new joiners are worth tracking, not least because cost-of-living pressures tend to show up there first.

The policy pipeline is also changing the provider landscape around AE. The Pension Schemes Act 2026, which received Royal Assent on 29 April 2026, requires the main default arrangements in master trusts and some group personal pensions to reach £25bn by 2030, or £10bn with a credible growth plan by 2035; that bears directly on which providers remain viable homes for an AE scheme. Separately, from 6 April 2029 salary sacrificed pension contributions above £2,000 a year will attract National Insurance, which affects scheme design for employers using salary sacrifice to boost contributions. Neither change alters AE eligibility, but both will shape the conversations you have with employer clients well before the Commission reports.

Things to reflect on for CPD

  • How many staff at your larger employer clients fall below the £10,000 trigger or the age 22 threshold, and does the employer enrol them voluntarily?
  • How do opt-out and stop rates in your clients’ schemes compare with the latest DWP figures, and what might explain any difference?
  • How would you explain to an employer client the difference between powers in the 2023 Act and changes that are actually in force?
  • Which of your clients’ current AE providers might be affected by the £25bn scale test, and when should that conversation start?