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<p>Automatic enrolment was designed to help more people save for their retirement, including groups who historically have been less likely to save, such as women and lower earners. The policy is working, with over 7.3 million people enrolled by the end of January 2017. Around two thirds of women are in the eligible target population for automatic enrolment and 10 million workers are estimated to be newly saving or saving more as a result of Automatic Enrolment by 2018, of which 3.6 million are women.</p><p> </p><p>Since the introduction of automatic enrolment, the private sector has seen the largest increases in participation in workplace pensions and by 2014 there was no gender gap in participation. As of 2015 female participation in the private sector had actually risen to a slightly higher level of 70 per cent compared to 69 per cent for male eligible employees. This represents a 30 percentage point increase for women from 2012 (whilst participation for men has increased by 26 percentage points) continuing the upward trend since the introduction of automatic enrolment.</p><p> </p><p>In addition, the Government’s decision to freeze the value of the automatic enrolment earnings trigger at £10,000 in 2017/18 is estimated to result in around 70,000 extra people being brought into automatic enrolment of whom around 50,000 (75 per cent) are women.</p><p> </p><p>As part of my Department’s review of automatic enrolment, which we have embarked on this year, we will look at how we can build on its success so that it continues to meet the needs of individual savers, including women. In addition to considering those not currently benefitting from the policy, this review will look at strengthening the evidence base concerning future contributions, and how we can maximise engagement with work place pension saving.</p><p>The government believes that employee share ownership in its various forms can help drive productivity and increase employee engagement. To support employee share ownership the government provides four tax-advantaged employee share schemes, which provide certain tax benefits for individuals acquiring shares in the company they work for.</p> |