Auto-enrolment is not the end of the pensions story

The government introduced legislation requiring employers to auto-enrol their workers in pension schemes, hoping that this ‘nudge’ will reduce the pensions gap – the difference between retirement savings and the minimum amount a pensioner will need to avoid poverty. Sandy Pepper summarises research suggesting otherwise. In the majority of cases, auto-enrolment contributions will not be high enough to provide the level of retirement income that most people require, because auto-enrolment assumes, and indeed in a sense encourages, apathy rather than engagement.