One in six UK employees have never checked their workplace pensions

One in six UK employees with a workplace pension have never checked how much is saved in it, new research by My Pension Expert has revealed.

The UK’s leading at-retirement adviser commissioned an independent survey of 2,000 UK adults. It found that a quarter (27%) of people with a workplace pension have either not checked it in the past year (11%) or have never checked it (16%).

Less than one in five (19%) UK adults with a workplace pension have checked it in the last month, and only a combined 54% have checked it in the past six months.

When it comes to contributions, 38% contribute between 8% and 10% of their monthly salary into their workplace pension (when combining theirs and their employer’s contributions). Just 8% of employees contribute more than 15%.

Notably, around one in eight (12%) of people don’t know whether they have a workplace pension or how much they contribute to it.

Despite the lack of engagement and many only making the minimum contributions, most (59%) UK adults with a workplace pension say they will ‘rely’ on it to fund their desired lifestyle in retirement. 

Lily Megson, Policy Director at My Pension Expert, said: “This research shines a bright and somewhat unflattering light on auto-enrolment workplace pensions. Whilst it’s rightly hailed as a game-changer for ensuring employees save into a pension, much more needs to be done to help people to better engage with their workplace pension and retirement planning more generally.”