Lower-paid 'behind on pensions'

The public sector is a key factor in pension scheme membership

Low-paid employees in the UK were less likely to belong to pension schemes than higher-paid colleagues in 2008, official statistics show.

Some 21% of men and 32% of women earning less than £300 a week were in employer-sponsored pension schemes.

The Office for National Statistics said a greater proportion of women full-time workers were members than men.

This was partly because membership was high in the public sector, where women were more likely to work.

Membership

Overall, the research found that 1.7 million men had full-time jobs in 2008 that paid less than £300 a week, 79% of whom had not joined their employer's pension scheme.

PERSONAL ACCOUNTS EXPLAINED Employees compelled to join the scheme, unless they already have a good workplace pension or choose to opt out Contributions will be paid on earnings between £5,000 and £33,500 p.a. There will be an annual ceiling on total contributions of £3,600 People will not be able to transfer funds from existing pension plans Contributions will be collected centrally and paid into a choice of investment funds Start date for personal accounts will be 2012 Personal accounts part of a wider pension shake-up involving a raising of state pension age to 68 Be ready for pensions upheaval

About 1.9 million women also earned less than £300 a week, 68% of whom were not saving for their retirement through a company pension.

But the data showed that those on higher salaries were much more likely to be signed up to a scheme.

Some 76% of men and 82% of women with gross weekly earnings of £600 or more belonged to an employer-sponsored pension scheme.

In 2012, a new national pension system will be launched. The scheme, called personal accounts, will top up payments from the basic state pension.

It will use automatic enrolment to persuade millions of workers to save.

"These [ONS] figures highlight the need for our reforms to the UK pensions system to ensure that more people are able to save for their retirement," a spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions said.

Trends

The data is published in the ONS Pension Trends report, and draws on data from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings.

The figures come shortly after a survey commissioned by the BBC found that half of UK adults aged between 20 and 60 were not putting aside any funds into a pension.

The survey found affordability was the main barrier for young people, with many saying they were concentrating on paying off debts instead.

For older people, reasons ranged from redundancy to women who had never joined a pension scheme because of leaving full-time work to have children.