The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has published new research on employers' attitudes towards pensions, revealing that nearly a third (30 per cent) are unsure what pension they offer new employees.

In addition to this, nearly one fifth (18 per cent) of employers said they do not offer any pension scheme to new employees.

Defined contribution (DC) pension schemes were the most popular option, offered by 42 per cent of employers, and nearly nine in ten (87 per cent) of employers who reported offering a pension scheme, while just 4 per cent offered a defined benefit (DB) pension to new employees.

Some employers were also automatically enrolling employees who fall outside of the auto-enrolment (AE) legislation criteria, according to the research.

In particular, 15 per cent of employers had automatically enrolled staff aged 18-21, 13 per cent of employers had automatically enrolled staff earning less than £10,000 a year, and 7 per cent of employers had automatically enrolled workers aged above State Pension Age.

The research suggested that employers may not be prioritising their pension offering revealing that the majority (77 per cent) of employers haven't switched pension provider or thought about switching, whilst just 9 per cent had thought about switching.

Whilst this increased to 11 per cent amongst those who offered DC schemes, the large majority (85 per cent) of employers who offer DC pensions said they hadn’t switched, with just over a third (35 per cent) of employers who offer DC saying they wouldn’t know how to switch providers.

Amongst those employers who had switched pension provider, the most common factor in this decision was advice from a professional body, colleagues or fellow employers (36 per cent), value for members/employees (35 per cent), value for money for the employer (33 per cent), and the fees or costs on the employer (31 per cent).

However, when looking only at those employers who offer DC pensions, the most commonly cited factor was the value for members / their employees of the provider scheme, cited by over a third (36 per cent).

Employers were also asked about what information or guidance they provide for their employees on state pension entitlements, workplace pensions/AE, and retirement income planning.

This revealed that whilst the majority (68 per cent) of employers provide employees with information or guidance on workplace pensions /AE, just over a third (35 per cent) provided information on the state pension, while fewer (15 per cent) provided information or guidance on retirement income planning.

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