Pensions adequacy – auto-enrolment contributions for low earners and their employers

The committee welcomes responses from anyone with answers to the questions in the call for evidence. The deadline to submit evidence is 4:00pm on 26 October 2026.

What the committee is asking

Terms of reference

To what extent do minimum AE contributions need to increase?

How should any contribution increase be shared between employers and workers?

What are the trade-offs for employers and workers between current needs and long-term savings? How might policy design help balance them?

What would be an appropriate timetable for any increases?

Is there also a case for reducing or removing the lower earnings limit on contributions and/or the earnings trigger for auto-enrolment?

To what extent are employers and the public persuaded of the need for contributions to increase?

Why this inquiry exists

15 million working-age people are not saving enough for sufficient retirement income, with low-earners most likely to be among them. But both they and small businesses feel the most pain from contribution increases.

You can submit evidence until 16.00 on 26 October 2026.

Read the call for evidence for more detail about the inquiry

How to send evidence

Evidence goes to the committee through Parliament’s own form. There is no way to submit it from here: Parliament publishes no API for written evidence, so the button above opens the committee’s page.

What you send is published under your name and can be quoted in the committee’s report. Keep it under 3,000 words, send it as a document rather than a letter in the body of an email, and answer the questions above rather than writing generally.

This committee accepts submissions after the closing date, though earlier is better.

Open the inquiry on committees.parliament.uk