UK workers are missing out on an estimated £2.3bn a year in pension contributions by failing to join company schemes, according to new research.
A survey of almost 1,800 UK workers, by insurance firm from AXA, reveals that this figure could be as high as £5.6bn because 30% of respondents who had not joined a scheme did not know if their employers contributed to their scheme.
The findings reveal that, despite average employer contributions estimated to be in the region of 5% of annual salary, 28% of those employees who are entitled to join any type of company pension have failed to do so.
Mark Rowlands, business development & marketing director at AXA, said: “It is sad that so many British workers fail to join company pension schemes.
“It is perhaps an indictment of the lack of effective communications between companies and their employees.
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“Simple effective communication of the benefits would go a long way to addressing the problem of pension under-funding in the UK by encouraging take up,” he added.
The survey also shows that the majority of employees (63%) who had joined company pension schemes said their employer does pay into the company pension on their behalf.
