Workers in large companies are more likely to depend on their workplace pension in retirement compared to workers in smaller businesses, research by Scottish Widows has shown.

Almost two thirds of workers in large businesses said they will rely on their company pension for a reasonable standard of living in retirement. This compares to 40% of employees working for medium businesses and 32% of small businesses workers.

All of these figures show an increase from 12 months ago, with the biggest rise (of 9 percentage points) being among large employers.

The research also found that employees in businesses that have begun auto-enrolment are more likely to be saving:

• 30% of employees in small businesses are not saving towards retirement
• this compares to 11% of those working for large businesses.

Lynn Graves, corporate pensions expert at Scottish Widows, said:

“3 years since the introduction of auto-enrolment, employees are really starting to reap the benefits of workplace pension savings.

“As workers begin to understand the positive impact of auto-enrolment, businesses need to ask themselves whether they are providing enough ongoing support to encourage staff to be more engaged with longer term savings.”

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