Date - 15 July 2024
Request
Regarding data on Automatic Enrolment in Northern Ireland, and in particular, information on ‘Opting Out’ of those arrangements. As the Pensions Regulator has an oversight role in relation to pensions in Northern Ireland, I have been asked to seek answers to the following queries.
- If available, can you please forward summary data for the most recent years (2020 – 2022) concerning the number and proportion of employees who are auto-enrolled in a pension scheme in Northern Ireland. Again, if available, please provide a breakdown of the data by sector, gender, age, working arrangement and region of Northern Ireland.
- If available, can you please provide data for the years 2020 – 2022 concerning the number and proportion of eligible employees who have decided to ‘opt out’ of auto enrolment. Again, if available, please provide a breakdown of the data by sector, gender, age, working arrangement and region of Northern Ireland.
- Does the Pensions Regulator hold any information, either quantitative or qualitative, concerning the reasons eligible employees in Northern Ireland decide to opt out of the auto-enrolment pension arrangements? If so, please forward the data.
- If data /information relating to queries 1, 2 and 3 is unavailable, what are the reasons for this? For example is information on opting out collected in Northern Ireland?
- Does the Pensions Regulator hold any data on opting out which compares Northern Ireland with the other UK jurisdictions? If so, please forward.
The ‘proportion of employees’ in Q.1 and Q.2 of my request refers to the total number of employees in each category (ie sector, gender, age, and working arrangement).
For example, if data on auto-enrolment or opting out is available for the public and private sectors in Northern Ireland, then the proportions would be based on (i) total no. of employees in private sector; and (ii) total no. of employees in public sector. For all employees, the proportion would be based on the total number of employees in Northern Ireland.
Similarly, for gender (male/female) and working arrangement (part-time/full-time).
Response
I confirm that we hold some of the information you have requested. In respect of part 1 of your request, the only requested information TPR holds is the number and proportion of employees who have been auto enrolled in a pension scheme in Northern Ireland, broken down by the regions within Northern Ireland.
The table below shows the number of eligible jobholders auto enrolled for the first time in Northern Ireland per year.
Eligible jobholders auto enrolled in Northern Ireland
You may need to scroll to the right to see the figures for 2022 depending on the resolution of your screen.
| Local Authority | 2020 | Percentage of Total - 2020 | 2021 | Percentage of Total - 2021 | 2022 | Percentage of Total - 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Antrim | 61 | 1.76% | 134 | 3.40% | 68 | 1.43% |
| Ards | 79 | 2.28% | 70 | 1.78% | 125 | 2.63% |
| Armagh | 155 | 4.47% | 171 | 4.34% | 299 | 6.29% |
| Ballymena | 121 | 3.49% | 246 | 6.25% | 103 | 2.17% |
| Ballymoney | 26 | 0.75% | 32 | 0.81% | 21 | 0.44% |
| Banbridge | 29 | 0.84% | 53 | 1.35% | 105 | 2.21% |
| Belfast | 881 | 25.40% | 660 | 16.77% | 1,109 | 23.33% |
| Carrickfergus | 17 | 0.49% | 29 | 0.74% | 30 | 0.63% |
| Castlereagh | 71 | 2.05% | 168 | 4.27% | 112 | 2.36% |
| Coleraine | 100 | 2.88% | 188 | 4.78% | 94 | 1.98% |
| Cookstown | 20 | 0.58% | 131 | 3.33% | 70 | 1.47% |
| Craigavon | 73 | 2.10% | 91 | 2.31% | 169 | 3.56% |
| Derry | 132 | 3.81% | 129 | 3.28% | 145 | 3.05% |
| Down | 194 | 5.59% | 86 | 2.18% | 70 | 1.47% |
| Dungannon | 74 | 2.13% | 624 | 15.85% | 161 | 3.39% |
| Fermanagh | 42 | 1.21% | 92 | 2.34% | 128 | 2.69% |
| Larne | 17 | 0.49% | 19 | 0.48% | 38 | 0.80% |
| Limavady | 34 | 0.98% | 43 | 1.09% | 31 | 0.65% |
| Lisburn | 205 | 5.91% | 122 | 3.10% | 196 | 4.12% |
| Magherafelt | 52 | 1.50% | 135 | 3.43% | 98 | 2.06% |
| Moyle | 11 | 0.32% | 9 | 0.23% | 12 | 0.25% |
| Newry and Mourne | 163 | 4.70% | 241 | 6.12% | 838 | 17.63% |
| Newtownabbey | 96 | 2.77% | 59 | 1.50% | 123 | 2.59% |
| North Down | 604 | 17.41% | 179 | 4.55% | 454 | 9.55% |
| Omagh | 182 | 5.25% | 121 | 3.07% | 78 | 1.64% |
| Strabane | 30 | 0.86% | 104 | 2.64% | 76 | 1.60% |
| TOTAL | 3,469 | 3,936 | 4,753 |
TPR does not hold data on opt-outs. However, the DWP holds some analysis on workplace pension participation, which is available on the DWP website. While the DWP’s analysis is not focused on Northern Ireland, this does offer a broad picture of the requested information about opt-outs.
Request for clarification
A request for clarification asked if we could:
"recalculate the percentages for each of the 26 council areas… to determine the number of auto-enrolments as a proportion of those eligible to do so. This would provide an estimate of how complete the process is, and how many are still declining to take out a pension with their employer. For example, in Antrim there were 61 enrolments in 2020. If we could have this figure as a proportion of the total number of eligible employees in Antrim during 2020, that would be more helpful.
In other words, the row percentages for each of the 26 areas, rather than the column percentages, as shown in the table."
Response
We do not hold the requested data.