Pension saving for the self-employed

Overall, pension provision among the self-employed is low. As at 2018 just 31 per cent of self-employed people in the UK are paying into a pension. The self-employed currently account for 15 per cent of the UK workforce and as this sector continues to grow this lack of retirement provision is a cause of concern.

Thanks to automatic enrolment over one million employers have now enrolled more than 9 million eligible staff into a workplace pension. However, self-employed people are not eligible for automatic enrolment; there is no employer to automatically enrol them into saving. 

To explore ideas for tackling this issue, the ABI together with the Department for Work & Pensions and HM Treasury held a TechSprint on 26 and 27 March 2018, looking at options to make retirement saving easier for the self-employed.