In the 2022 and 2023 surveys, questions on awareness of and interest in partaking in the Government's planned Auto Enrolment Retirement Savings Scheme were included in the survey questionnaire.
Under this scheme, workers who do not have an occupational pension will be automatically enrolled in a new retirement savings scheme if they’re aged 23 to 60. The employer and the State will also contribute to the retirement savings scheme on their behalf. More information on this planned Government scheme is available in the Background Notes.
These questions on the Auto Enrolment Retirement Savings Scheme, were asked only of respondents who had no occupational pension cover from their current employment.
The planned retirement savings scheme only applies to persons aged 23 to 60 years. However, all respondents aged 20 to 69 years who do not have occupational pension coverage from their current employment, were asked about their awareness of the planned retirements savings scheme.
- Of workers with no occupational pension from their current employment, less than one in five (18%) were aware of Government’s planned Auto Enrolment Retirement Savings Scheme, unchanged from 2022. See Table 7.1.
- Analysis by age group shows that males were more aware of the scheme than females – 20% of males with no current occupational pension cover had heard of the planned Government scheme, compared with 17% of females. Males aged 45 to 54 years were most aware of the scheme (27%).
- One in five (20%) Irish nationals had heard of the Auto Enrolment Retirement Savings Scheme, compared with only one in seven (14%) non-Irish nationals.
- Full-time workers who were working in medium sized organisations (with 11 to 49 employees) but had no occupational pension cover form their current employment, were most aware of the planned Government retirement savings scheme – 22% of these workers had heard of the scheme. By comparison, just one in nine (11%) of persons working part-time in medium sized organisation (with 20 to 49 employees) were aware of the planned retirement savings scheme.
- Of respondents who are eligible to be auto enrolled in this planned retirement savings scheme (aged 23 to 60 with no occupational cover from their current employment), and were aware of the scheme, over seven in ten (72%) said that they would stay in the scheme if automatically enrolled in it, an increase of seven percentage points on the same period in 2022. See Table 7.2.
Table 7.1 Employees who do not have an occupational pension scheme by their awareness of the auto-enrolment scheme, Q3 2023
Table 7.2 Employees who do not have an occupational pension scheme (but to whom the scheme applies) who have heard of the auto-enrolment scheme by their willingness to remain if opted into the scheme, Q3 2023
- Over eight in ten (81%) workers who were aware of the planned Government retirement savings scheme and are eligible for it and would stay in the scheme if auto enrolled in it, had said that the reason for their not having occupational cover from their current employment was that their employer did not offer an occupational pension scheme, an increase of four percentage points on the same period in 2022. See Table 7.3 and PxStat Table PMQ75 for 2022 comparison.
Table 7.3 Employees who do not have an occupational pension scheme (but to whom the scheme applies) who have heard of the auto-enrolment scheme by their reason for not having occupational pension cover, Q3 2023
Workers who are outside the age range for auto enrolment in the scheme, can opt-in to the scheme. Respondents in this age range (20 to 22 years or 61 to 69 years) were asked if they were likely to opt-in to the scheme.
- Of workers to whom the scheme does not apply (workers with no occupational pension and outside of 23 to 60 age range), almost one third said that they would opt-in to the scheme. See Table 7.4.
Table 7.4 Employees who do not have an occupational pension scheme by whether or not they have heard of auto enrolment and their interest in it, Q3 2023
