Total membership of occupational pensions schemes has increased by 400,000 to 27.6m in 2012, however members contributing has fallen to a new low since records began for all three types of occupational pension schemes, data from the Office of National Statistics show.
The ONS’s Occupational pension schemes survey 2012 revealed that in 2012 there were 7.8m active members in occupational pension schemes compared to 8.2m in 2011 and 12.2m in 1967. Active members are those that are contributing or having contributions paid into a scheme.
Data for all three types of occupational pension schemes, including public sector and private sector schemes, began in 1983 and at that point there were 11.1m active members.
In 2012, there were approximately 5.1m active members in public sector schemes and 2.7m in private sector schemes.
For private sector defined benefit schemes, the average contribution rate in 2012 was 4.9 per cent for members and 15.2 per cent for employers. For private sector defined contribution schemes, the average contribution rate in 2012 was 3.1 per cent for members and 6.6 per cent for employers.
John Fox, managing director of Liberty Sipp, said: “This latest pensions data is once again highly unnerving. The continued decline in active members of occupational pension schemes bodes very ill for the future.
“For whatever reason, economic or otherwise, more and more people are letting their saving for retirement slip. You cannot help but think that high inflation, low wage growth and the general economic hardship of recent years have seen many people put any prospect of pension planning on hold altogether.
“It’s hard to save for the future when managing in the present is tough enough. On a slightly more positive note, auto-enrolment is potentially starting to have an impact as total membership of occupational schemes has risen by 400,000. Last year, by contrast, membership levels were static.
“Overall, though, this data confirms once again how the pensions time bomb continues to tick. And with every year that passes, we are running out of options to defuse it.”
