How many people are saving into a workplace pension?
About 9 in 10 eligible employees in Great Britain (90%, or 22.6 million people) were saving into a workplace pension in 2025, according to DWP's workplace pension participation statistics published on 30 July 2026. Across all employees, including those not eligible, the rate was 82%, or 24.2 million people.
Automatic enrolment began in 2012. Employers must enrol workers aged 22 to State Pension age who earn over £10,000 a year, and the minimum contribution has been 8% of qualifying earnings since April 2019, at least 3% of it from the employer. Eligible savers put away £166.1 billion in 2025. Participation is lower in some groups, such as about 55% of eligible employees at private-sector employers with fewer than five staff.
The figures come from the ONS earnings survey and exclude the self-employed.
When is the next figure out?
DWP statistics are pre-announced on the GOV.UK research and statistics calendar and published at 9:30am. Universal Credit statistics moved from monthly to quarterly releases in February, May, August and November after a 2026 consultation, with the final monthly release on 14 April 2026; provisional estimates were dropped and each quarterly release adds three months of finalised data. The benefits compendium, Benefit Combinations and National Insurance number allocations are now released together once a year. Fraud and error estimates appear each spring, and expenditure tables follow the Budget and spring forecast.
Every official release due in the next two weeks is on the release calendar.
Where the figures come from
- Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) statistics and Stat-XploreWhere to find DWP figures on Universal Credit, PIP, State Pension and Pension Credit, how to build a Stat-Xplore table and use the free Open Data API.
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This answer says where the official figures are published and how they are defined. It gives no verdict on any claim. To report an error, send a correction request. More questions about pensions and retirement: all Pensions and retirement questions.