Nine in 10 UK employees eligible for automatic enrolment (AE) were saving into a workplace pension in 2025, although opt-out rates have risen to around 11-12 per cent, Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) statistics have revealed.

The DWP’s latest Workplace pension participation and savings data showed that 22.6 million eligible employees were saving into a workplace pension last year, an increase of 600,000 compared with 2024.

Across all employees, including those who were not eligible for AE, workplace pension participation remained at around 82 per cent, with 24.2 million people saving.

The DWP said the number of savers had continued to increase partly because more employees had become eligible while the £10,000 AE earnings trigger remained frozen.

Total annual workplace pension saving among eligible employees reached £166.1bn in 2025, representing a £63.5bn real-terms increase compared with 2012, measured in 2025 earnings terms.

Employer contributions accounted for 61 per cent of the total, employee contributions 27 per cent, and tax relief the remaining 12 per cent.

However, the DWP warned that comparisons between recent years should be treated with caution due to changes in the validation and cleaning of pension savings data.

Meanwhile, the statistics showed persistent participation gaps despite AE's overall success.

Only around 55 per cent of eligible private-sector employees working for 'micro employers' with fewer than five staff were saving into a workplace pension.

The participation rate among eligible Pakistani and Bangladeshi employees stood at 67 per cent, based on a three-year average from the Family Resources Survey.

Participation increased with earnings and appeared to stabilise once annual pay reached around £20,000, with a clear rise either side of the £10,000 AE trigger.

The DWP also identified a small upward trend in opt-outs and employees stopping saving.

The proportion of people who had newly started saving before actively opting out rose to around 11-12 per cent in the latest year.

The department noted the figure had been more volatile in recent years, potentially reflecting the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and periods of elevated cost-of-living pressure.

However, the proportion of active savers who stopped contributing each quarter had remained broadly stable over several years, and both measures remained low compared with the overall eligible population.

Broadstone director, David Pye, commented on the latest statistics: “The continued rise in workplace pension participation is a major success story, with the data demonstrating the lasting impact of AE in bringing millions more people into pension savings.

“Pension accumulation is now firmly established as a normal part of working life; however, participation alone does not guarantee an adequate retirement income.”

Pye warned that minimum AE contributions were unlikely to deliver the retirement living standards expected by many employees, particularly where saving began later or was interrupted.

He also argued the increase in opt-outs should be monitored closely.

“Although the rise remains relatively modest, it may indicate that continued pressures on household budgets through cost-of-living challenges are forcing more employees to prioritise their immediate financial needs over future ones,” he added.

Standard Life Centre for the Future of Retirement director, Catherine Foot, described AE as one of the UK’s biggest public policy successes but stressed that further reform was required.

“Defaulting into pension saving has reversed decades of declining saving rates, but the next step needs to be ensuring people have enough for an adequate retirement income," she said.

“The Pensions Commission’s interim report laid out the severity of undersaving in the UK, and increasing AE contribution rates remains the most powerful lever to address this.”

Foot subsequently called for the commission to establish a phased roadmap for raising minimum contributions from 8 per cent to 12 per cent over time.

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