Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to increase the amount which people individually save through auto-enrolment into pension schemes.

Automatic enrolment into workplace pensions was introduced to enable more people to save for their retirement. At the end of January 2017, more than 7.3 million people had already been automatically enrolled.

Minimum contributions are currently a total of 2 per cent (with at least 1 per cent from the employer). The amount people save through automatic enrolment is already set to increase to 5 per cent (with at least 2 per cent from the employer) in April 2018 and 8 per cent (with at least 3 per cent from the employer) in April 2019.

Automatic enrolment has reversed the decline in private pension saving since the last decade. As part of the review of the policy we have embarked on this year, we will look at how we can build on this success. In addition to considering those not currently benefitting from the policy, we will also look at strengthening the evidence base concerning future contributions, and how we can maximise engagement with work place pension saving.