ABI urges Government to allow automatic enrolment before 2012
The Government has today published draft regulations which will set in motion the process for automatically enrolling all employees into workplace pensions from 2012.The regulations stem from the Pensions Act 2008, which the ABI supports as a means towards more people saving more money for their retirement. But the Government has the opportunity to go further and allow employers who want to offer auto-enrolment to their staff sooner than 2012, and in doing so giving potentially millions of people a head start in securing a more comfortable retirement.
Maggie Craig, the ABI's Director of Life and Savings, said: "These regulations are an important step on the road towards pension reform. They set out the way in which all employers will provide pensions into which their employees will be automatically enrolled, either through existing workplace schemes or the new system of personal accounts.
"But right now there are almost five million employees who could be members of their workplace pension, getting contributions from their employer and free money from the Government. It would be a significant boost for retirement saving if employers who want to offer that benefit to staff before 2012 were able to do so, and we urge the Government to allow that to happen."