The millionth UK employee has been auto-enrolled into a workplace pension scheme.
The landmark figure is included in the monthly auto-enrolment registration report published by The Pensions Regulator.
The Travis Perkins Group was among the employers that registered when the one million-employee mark was reached. The builders merchants has automatically enrolled around 9,000 of its employees into a pension scheme.
Geoff Cooper, chief executive of the Travis Perkins Group, said: “At the Travis Perkins Group, our employees are already among the most engaged in the UK.
“A critical part of this is down to recognition, reward and feeling good about their future. Encouraging every one of our 24,000 employees to save for the future is very important for us, and I am proud that we have played a part in reaching this important first million.
“The auto-enrolment scheme has helped us overcome some of the retirement savings inertia that people have, and our internal communications campaign seems to have struck a chord with many of our people.”
Steve Webb, pensions minister, said: “Today is a real landmark in this quiet revolution, finally reversing decades of decline in pension saving.
“This is the biggest change to the pensions system for a century.”
Charles Counsell, director of automatic enrolment at The Pensions Regulator, added: “The Pensions Regulator is delighted to be able to announce a million more people are now saving into a pension.
“This milestone is a real credit to the hundreds of employers which have helped make the early implementation of automatic-enrolment a success.
“There is still much to be done, with the challenge of large numbers of medium employers due to automatically enrol their workers early next year. The Pensions Regulator is working to make sure they are prepared.”
The testing time for auto-enrolment is yet to come. The organisations that have gone through their staging date so far are large employers that typically have well-resourced HR teams to deal with complying with the pension rules.
As we move towards medium-sized employers, their number expands exponentially. On top of that, these organisations can be expected to have fewer internal resources to throw at auto-enrolment, and will therefore need more help.
The only way for employers to protect themselves from the crunch is to start preparations as soon as possible. It is not too early for any employer auto-enrolling in 2014 to get the ball rolling now.