According to The Pensions Regulator, more than three hundred and forty thousand employers have successfully enrolled seven million people into a workplace pension.
So, according to these figures, if we base the total UK workforce on the number given in December 2016 of 32 million, we can safely say there are 25 million still to enroll. That’s a lot of AE activity for employees and advisers alike.
25 million – That’s the population of Australia…
25 million – Also the number of emails sent every 8 seconds worldwide
25 million – That’s 1,000 staging employees for every 1 adviser in the UK
(we realise it doesn’t work this way – but it certainly helps for perspective)
We keep highlighting the fact that 2017 will see a massive surge of people hitting their staging dates and thus having toautomatically enroll their employees.
While we know that a lot of employers are seeing this as yet another barrier to business, the long term picture will show the benefits of this initiative. Automatic enrolment is helping reverse the trend for people who don’t save enough for retirement.
As a result, our aging population will have a healthier bank balance which in turn could lead to better physical health. Our aging population are living longer and it is just going to keep increasing, which is great, however it does mean that the money we save will now will need to last us for longer.
Although a slightly contentious issue for smaller businesses, the long term benefits of auto enrolment will be worth it in the end.