Almost 9 in 10 of eligible employees (88%, 19.2m people) are saving for retirement through their workplace pension.

This is an increase from 55% in 2012 when automatic enrolment began, DWP figures have said.

Despite the growth pension participation among self-employed people continued to fall from 21% in 2009/10 to 14% in 2018/19.

The annual total amount saved by eligible employees was £98.4bn in 2019, an increase of £5.3bn from 2018.

Some £40.5bn was saved into public sector schemes (41%), with £57.9bn (59%) saved into private sector schemes.

DWP data from December 2019 showed 5.44m people were employed in the public sector (16%) compared to 27.55m (84%) people in the private sector.

Following the release of the data, Hargreaves Lansdown shared concerns about the pension savings figures for the self-employed.

Nathan Long, interim head of policy at Hargreaves Lansdown said: “The self-employed continue to be precariously placed with just a handful choosing to save into a pension, showing the existing incentives just don’t resonate.

"The Government will also be acutely aware that 41% of all pension contributions go to public sector employees that represent less than a fifth of all workers.”