Growth in workplace pension numbers began to slow as contributions have remained relatively stable since the start of the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020.

A total of 20.4m Britons were participating in a workplace pension in 2022, 88% of eligible employees, according to the DWP statistics. This compares to just 47% in 2012.

However, there were some gaps with relatively low participation for eligible employees in 2022. Only 59% of employees of micro employers were saving through workplace pensions.

There was also lower participation from some ethnic groups including below 75% participation for Pakistani and Bangladeshi, and Indian employees.

Total annual workplace pension savings for eligible savers was £115.9 billion in 2022. While this represented an increase in savings in cash terms from 2021 (around £1.2bn), when adjusted to 2022 earnings levels, this represents a real terms fall (around £5.6bn).

However, most workplace pension members were continuing to save, with less than 1% of members making an active decision to stop saving in 2022/23.

In the financial year 2022-23, the percentage of workplace pension savers stopping saving following an active decision to stop saving was around 0.8%; similar to last year at around 0.7%.

Auto enrolment was introduced in 2012 to help address the decline in private pension saving and to make long-term saving the norm. The roll-out was completed in April 2019.

In April 2019 the minimum contribution rates under AE increased from 4% to 6% of earnings within the qualifying earnings band including an increase in the minimum employer contribution from 1% to 2%. The latest DWP data showed that since the start of 2020, the proportion of employees contributing at least 6.5% of their earnings has largely stayed the same at around 46%.