Official Statistics

Workplace pension participation and savings trends of eligible employees: 2009 to 2024

Published 31 July 2025

This is the latest release of statistics on Workplace Pension Participation and Savings Trends. This newest edition in the series extends the data series to 2024 and provides additions to the statistical series, offering information on the workplace pension participation of all employees, not just those eligible for Automatic Enrolment (AE). Information on the trend in private pension withdrawals is also included.

After years of growth in participation during the roll-out of AE, participation rates have stabilised in recent years. Trends in stopping saving levels and contributions have also remained relatively stable.

There are two important groups considered in this publication:

1. Eligible Employees – these are the group of employees who are eligible for AE (those aged 22 to State Pension age and earn over £10,000 a year)
2. All Employees – this captures all employees, regardless of AE eligibility

The best data source which enables analysis of AE participation and contributions amongst employees is the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE). The latest data available is the 2024 survey. The ONS have started to introduce improvements to the methods for processing returns to the survey for the 2024 provisional data and 2023 revised data (which has been updated in this release). This has resulted in a greater number of higher earners being included in the final dataset. Given the strong relationship between earnings and pension participation may have contributed to the small increases in participation and saving levels. Estimating saving levels is challenging and a number of steps have been taken by DWP to improve the quality of the data. See the annex for further details.

1. Trends in Workplace Pension Participation

Around 9-in-10 (89%) of eligible employees in Great Britain were saving into a workplace pension in 2024, continuing the trend of previous years, with 21.7 million eligible employees saving. This is an increase of 0.8 million more eligible employees saving and a 1ppt increase in the pension participation rate compared to 2023.

The overall workplace pension participation rate of all employees in Great Britain continued to be around 8-in-10 (82%) in 2024, with 23.3 million employees saving. This is 0.9 million greater number of employees saving compared to 2023.

The increase in the number of employees saving is more substantial than previous years. This can be attributed to an increase in the number of employees brought into AE eligibility, as the earnings trigger (currently £10,000) has remained frozen in recent years and the changes made by ONS to the ASHE data now estimate a greater number of higher earners who are more likely to be saving into a workplace pension.

Figure 1: Eligible Employee pension participation rate to 2024

Figure 2: All Employee pension participation rate to 2024

Since AE was introduced in 2012, participation differences across the population have narrowed and most groups have seen trends in participation stabilise in recent years. There are some groups which a noticeable pension participation gap, for example:

• Only around 59% of eligible employees working for a micro employer (those with less than 5 employees) in the private sector are saving into a workplace pension
• 68% of Pakistani and Bangladeshi eligible employees are saving into a workplace pension (note, ethnicity participation rates are calculated using a 3-year average due to small sample sizes)

Estimates of workplace pension participation by different breakdowns can be found in the accompanying tables.

Workplace pension participation increases with annual earning levels, appearing to stabilise when earnings reach around the mid twenty thousand. There is also a clear upshift in participation either side of the £10,000 trigger; the point at which individuals become eligible for Automatic Enrolment.

Figure 3: All Employee pension participation rate by annual earnings, 2024

2. Trends in Workplace Pension Saving

Total annual workplace pension savings for eligible savers was £149.7 billion in 2024. This is a £49.1 billion real terms increase compared to 2012 (in 2024 earnings terms).

Overall in 2024, contributions by employees accounted for 29% of saving, with employer contributions accounting for 62%, and income tax relief on the employee contribution the remaining 8%. However, there are noticeable differences in the distribution of contributions when comparing across the private and public sector.

Estimates of amounts saved can be found in the accompanying tables, however due to changes across years in the validation and cleaning of pension saving data, comparison of recent year-to-year changes should be treated with caution. Details on the cleaning of pension saving data can be found in the methodology note.

Figure 4: Amounts saved for eligible employees in 2024

3. Timely Monitoring of Pension Trends

The number of active savers who stop saving each quarter as a proportion of total active savers has been stable over multiple years at under 1%.

The number of people who have newly started saving and actively opted out as a proportion of newly started savers has proven to be more volatile in recent years, perhaps driven by Covid-19 and periods of higher cost-of-living. However, in the last couple of years, has been around 8-10%.

To examine across timelier indicators of pension saving, aggregated data from several pension providers is also included in the accompanying tables which finds similar rates of opt outs and stopping saving.

Figure 5: Stopping saving rates to financial year 2024 to 2025, Q3

4. Trends in Pension Withdrawals

Automatic Enrolment has increased the number of pension savers over the last 12 years. As a result, there is an increase in the number of people accessing a pension. The publication includes additional details on the number and type of pension being accessed. There are two types of workplace pension:

1. Defined Contribution – a pension pot based on how much is paid in and investment returns
2. Defined Benefit – a pension based on your salary and how long you’ve worked for your employer

Overall, the vast majority, 95%, of the 12.8 million individuals in receipt of a private pension payment in 2024 to 2025 are in receipt of a Defined Benefit or an annuity. However, this is slowly changing. When assessing private pensions accessed for the first time, the proportion receiving a lump sum or other Defined Contribution product has risen from 37% (280,000) in the 2016 to 2017 financial year to 48% (390,000) in the 2024 to 2025 financial year.

Further statistics on those in receipt of a private payment pension can be found in the accompanying tables, covering gender and age bands, as well as private pension payments in the same financial year as employment income.

Figure 6: Private pension withdrawals for those accessing for the first time, by product type to financial year 2024 to 2025

5. About these statistics

Automatic Enrolment (AE) was introduced in 2012 to help address the decline in private pension saving and to make long-term saving the norm. It aims to increase workplace pension saving in the UK and forms part of a wider set of pension reforms designed to enable individuals to achieve financial security in retirement.

Statistics within this release allow continued evaluation of the success of AE in increasing both the number of savers, and the amount of savings. To continue understanding the role of AE on individual savers, this year the publication has expanded to include information on those accessing a private pension, helping understanding of trends in decumulation, not just accumulation. 

ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) is the principal data source of information on participation and amounts saved. ASHE is a key source of information on workplace pensions in GB as it collects information on all types of workplace pension schemes. The survey results are used widely to monitor the impacts of pension reforms.

Supplementary data sources used include DWP Family Resources Survey (FRS) for information on ethnicity, disability, and economic status breakdowns in participation. FRS collects information on the income and circumstances of individuals living in a representative sample of private households in the United Kingdom.

HMRC Real-Time Information (RTI) data provides information on stopping saving and contributions at monthly intervals, and also information on private pension withdrawals. RTI is HMRC’s reporting system for income taxed via Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) in the United Kingdom. The information is provided by employers and pension providers, with each submission within RTI relating to a payment to an employee or occupational pension recipient.

Alongside these, data supplied to DWP by a number of pension providers is also utilised, having been anonymised and aggregated following receipt for the purpose of information on stopping saving and contributions. Throughout this report eligible employees are defined as employees who meet the automatic enrolment age and earnings criteria in that year unless otherwise stated. Full details of the data sources, their key assumptions, limitations and definitions are available in the background information and methodology note published alongside this statistics release.

Other pension statistics are also available containing more information, for example:

1. HMRC publish information on private pension statistics.
2. Financial Conduct Authority publish information on Retirement Income Market data
3. DWP’s analysis of Automatic Enrolment saving levels

Estimates of the Gender Pension Gap were published in July 2025.

6. Contact details

Feedback and queries about the statistics can be sent to: workplacepensions.statistics@dwp.gov.uk. We are only able to reply to questions about the statistics.

For media enquiries please contact the DWP press office.

Published: 31 July 2025

Next edition: Summer 2026