Automatic enrolment: experiences of workers who have opted out – a qualitative research study

Since automatic enrolment began, more than 3 million workers have been automatically enrolled into a workplace pension scheme. The Automatic enrolment: qualitative research with large employers report published in October 2013 showed that the opt out rate is around 9%.


This research report

This research was done to improve our understanding of the reasons that workers opt out or leave pension saving after being automatically enrolled, their experiences of the opt-out process and their attitudes to retirement saving more generally.

The research was qualitative and consisted of interviews with 50 workers who were automatically enrolled into a workplace pension scheme by large employers between October 2012 and July 2013, and who subsequently opted out or left the scheme. The workers in this research came from a range of age groups, income groups, gender and employer types.

The research findings will be used to inform our understanding of the circumstances in which people opt out and to improve communications and information aimed at encouraging people to remain in workplace pension saving.