A survey carried out by the CBI and Scottish Widows has found 74% of 240 firms support the extension of Auto-enrolment to the self employed and those earning less than £10,000. Recognition of the business case was up at 98% while the moral case was at 95% for providing a workplace pension.

Additionally, the survey found:

• Auto-enrolment is well understood.
• 71% of businesses believe that for their team to have enough retirement income, employers need to make higher contributions.
• Timing was felt to be paramount in these increases, with it not being felt to be now.
• 93% of businesses feel that employee engagement and voluntary contributions should be the focus in the short term.

Michael Fell, CBI Chief UK Policy Director said: ‘While higher contributions will be needed in the future, now is not the time to raise mandatory contributions again. The government must first be given the chance to deliver the findings of the automatic enrolment review and fully assess the impact of the increase to contributions in April 2019.’

Pete Glancy, Head of Policy at Scottish Widows said: ‘While automatic enrolment has made an unprecedented positive impact on long term saving, the UK is still falling short. We know that 60% of 20-29 year olds are not saving enough for retirement and more than a fifth of UK adults expect they’ll never be able to afford to retire.’

 

For more information, visit the CBI website: https://www.cbi.org.uk/media-centre/articles/businesses-support-extension-of-auto-enrolment/