Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of (1) men, and (2) women, who earn less than £12,570 in any one job, who are members of auto-enrolment workplace pension schemes which operate on a Net Pay basis.

DWP do not hold this data.

A policy paper has been published showing the number of people who save into an occupational pension under net pay arrangements whose taxable pay is below the personal allowance is estimated to be 1.2 million in 2026-27. In 2023/24, the Personal Allowance is £12,570.

Women are estimated to make up 75% of those earning below the personal allowance and contributing to a pension scheme that uses net pay arrangements. The 1.2 million can therefore be broken down into around 0.3 million men and 0.9 million women.

Notes:

• These figures were produced for accrual in 2026-27 and the Personal Allowance at the time was not set to £12,570 in that tax year.
• These figures look at total pay across jobs and less contributions to Net Pay Arrangements, so it is possible that someone with total earnings above the Personal Allowance is included because removing their Net Pay Arrangement contributions takes them below the Personal Allowance or someone earns less than the Personal Allowance in a single job but their pay across jobs takes them above the Personal Allowance.
• These figures were produced for the Autumn Budget 2021 fiscal event using the 2018-19 SPI projected using Autumn Budget 2021 OBR determinants.
• Further detail can be found at the source which is linked below.

Source: Pensions relief relating to net pay arrangements - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)