Government begins £3.5m advertising campaign to boost auto-enrolment awareness

Auto-enrolment, under which eligible workers will automatically become members of a suitable workplace pension scheme unless they opt out, begins for the largest employers on 1 October. However more than half of the UK workforce is still unaware of the changes, according to a report published earlier this month by investment firm Scottish Widows.

The new adverts, which will cost the Government £3.5 million and run across TV, print, radio and online media until the middle of next month, feature famous employers backing the scheme with the slogan 'I'm in'. Among those features will be Karren Brady and Nick Hewer, stars of the BBC's The Apprentice, and Theo Paphitis from the channel's Dragon's Den.

Pensions law expert Mark Baker of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said that the campaign "had to be good news", particularly for the thousands of employers planning for the changes.

"The bottom line is that companies are being forced to pay their employees more money," he said. "So it's essential that people know about the changes and appreciate the extra payments that will be on offer."

"Auto-enrolment is the biggest change in pensions in a generation and will ultimately affect every worker in the UK. If any subject justifies spending £3.5m on an advertising campaign, it's the desperate need for UK workers to save more money for their retirement. The new laws certainly won't solve the pensions problem on their own, but it must be right for the Government to shout from the rooftops about the extra money that workers stand to receive," he added.

The largest employers will have to begin enrolling eligible workers into a suitable workplace pension scheme, or the National Employment Savings Trust (NEST), from next month. Smaller employers will follow in a staggered implementation programme running until April 2017. Both employers and workers will have to make minimum contributions to the scheme once enrolled. Eligible workers are those aged between 22 and the state pension age earning over £8,105 a year.

Around two-thirds of workers are expected to remain saving in a workplace pension once the programme takes effect, according to research by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP). Only 9% of respondents to a DWP survey said that they would definitely opt out of the programme.

However 52% of workers – the equivalent of 9.9 million people - surveyed for Scottish Widows' latest Workplace Pensions Report displayed an "alarming lack of awareness" of the impending reforms, with this particularly poor amongst lower-earning workers. The investment firm said that only 16% of those who were aware of the scheme found out about the changes from their employer, while 61% found out through the news and media.

The Government has described automatic enrolment as the biggest change to UK pensions in over 100 years.

"I'm delighted that well-known bosses have taken part in our latest awareness campaign, and back the biggest change in pensions for over a century – automatic enrolment," said Pensions Minister Steve Webb. "People should know that all they need to do is look out for a letter from their employer, and if they do nothing and stay 'in' they are effectively getting a pay rise."