Auto-enrolment will help tackle the pension paradox in the workplace that currently sees three-quarters of small employers not offer staff a pension scheme, a government-backed National Employment Savings Trust has said.
To mark two years since auto-enrolment was introduced, a YouGov survey for NEST of 619 employers with up to 49 workers found a majority (69%) support the idea that every worker in Britain should have access to workplace pension schemes.
However, the poll also found that 75% were failing to offer their own provision. From next year, 45,000 small and micro UK businesses will come under the new workplace pension duties and need to set-up and enrol most of their workers in a retirement schemes.
Publishing the results, NEST chief executive Tim Jones said: 'We are two years in to the roll-out of auto-enrolment and the largest and the largest businesses in the UK have already enrolled around 4.5 million workers. 2015 sees a real shift - small and micro businesses who traditionally have no or little pension experience will be stepping up to the plate.
'Auto-enrolment is a massive helping hand in helping employers tackle this pension paradox. Employers say that one of the most important factors in setting up an automatic enrolment scheme is that it is straightforward and hassle-free to use.'
When it comes to delivering auto-enrolment almost one in three (30%) businesses said they were most worried about ensuring they were able to meet legal requirements.
Employers said they were looking for a straightforward and hassle free scheme to use (highlighted by 91% of those polled) and to ensure that workers can feel confident their money is safe (87%).