As auto-enrolment marks its three year anniversary tomorrow with 5m workers enrolled (1 October 2015) a report suggests opt-out rates are lower than expected.

Some 9 out of every 10 workers are opting to stay in their pension scheme but NEST, the workplace pension scheme set up by the government, is warning that re-enrolling workers should begin now.

Every three years employers must re-enrol workers who stopped saving and still qualify, giving those who opted out a ‘second chance’ at pension saving.

An estimated £350 million is missing from the pension pots of the half a million workers who opted out first time round, says NEST. That includes around £35 million from tax relief and £170 million from employer contributions.

Support for the policy has been steadily rising to an all-time high (2011:63 per cent, 2013:68 per cent and 2014: 77 per cent). As well as increasing support for auto enrolment, NEST research has found that the number of workers who previously opted out but now plan to stay enrolled has reached a new high (2013:19 per cent, 2014: 41 per cent), more than doubling in a year.

{desktop}{/desktop}{mobile}{/mobile}

Helen Dean, chief executive of NEST, said: ‘It’s been three years since auto enrolment changed the face of pension saving in the UK and over 5 million workers are now saving for their future, around 2.4 million of them with NEST.

‘For those who didn’t stay in their pension scheme the first time round, re-enrolment gives them a second chance to benefit from employer contributions and tax relief. We know support is rising for auto enrolment. This is the time for those who opted out, stopped saving, or who are just about to be enrolled for the first time, to ask themselves ‘do I really want to walk away from this money?’

NEST currently has around 2.4 million members and its opt-out rate is 8 per cent on average and lower for younger members. There are around 29,000 employers signed up with NEST, plus over 1,000 self-employed members and the scheme looks after over £565 million on behalf of members.