Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to support low earners to save for retirement.

Automatic enrolment has reversed the decline in workplace pension saving. Latest figures show that over 10 million workers have now been automatically enrolled into workplace pension by more than 1.4 million employers. By 2019/20 an estimated extra £18.4 billion a year is estimated to go into workplace pensions as a result of Automatic Enrolment.

Automatic Enrolment has been particularly successful for those groups who were once poorly served or excluded from workplace pension saving, including lower earners. The largest increase amongst income groups in workplace pension participation (an increase from 20% to 72%) between 2012 and 2017, being amongst eligible private sector workers earning between £10,000 and £19,999.

The Government is committed to building on the success of Automatic Enrolment. The 2017 review sets out our ambition for the mid-2020s, with proposals to strengthen financial resilience for young people and lower earners, including those who have multiple part-time jobs. However, we will not force the pace of change in Automatic Enrolment and want to understand properly the impact of the 2018 and 2019 increases in minimum contribution rates, and work with stakeholders to build the consensus on which the success of Automatic Enrolment has been based, before committing to a timetable for the proposed changes.

In addition, low earners benefit from the rise in the living wage, the increase in the tax threshold and free 15-30 hours childcare support.