Morrissey said reducing the minimum age to 18 and removing the lower earnings limits has the potential to bring many more people into the workplace pension sphere.
She explained that it has the potential to “significantly boost the retirement prospects” of part-time workers, especially women who currently do not benefit from auto-enrolment but may wish to do so.
She added: “The pension minister said reform would be brought through in the 'fullness of time', but the concern is that the mid-2020s might become the late 2020s and the timetable gets pushed further and further out. These are important reforms that must not be kicked out into the long grass.”
Opperman added that in 2012 there were less than 40 per cent of women saving into occupational pensions but this number is now 80 per cent. He also said the same could be said for 22 to 29 year olds.
He said: “There is no question - automatic enrolment has transformed saving in this country.”
Earlier this month, the government opted to keep the earnings trigger for automatic enrolment at £10,000 for 2022-23, despite some in the industry calling for it to be scrapped to bring in more low earners.
In a written statement, Opperman said he opted to keep the qualifying earnings bands at their current level of £6,240 and £50,270.
This came after Now Pensions called for an urgent policy change to remove the £10,000 earnings trigger to bring more people into pension saving.
Last month (January 26), Opperman also failed to set out a timeline for reforming auto-enrolment in a parliamentary debate on the policy.
sonia.rach@ft.com
What do you think about the issues raised by this story? Email us on FTAletters@ft.com to let us know
