The Pensions Minister, Guy Opperman, has confirmed that for the seventh year in a row, the Automatic Enrolment earnings trigger for tax year 2020/21 will remain at £10,000, both the lower and upper earnings limits will continue to be aligned to the National Insurance Contribution thresholds.
The Pensions Industry have made numerous calls over recent years for the auto-enrolment earnings trigger to be lowered to include those that are on a lower salary and people who work less hours.
According to the director of policy at The People’s Pension, Greg McClymont, these lower paid individuals appear to be in the main, women and those from ethnic minorities, Mr McClymont stated that previous government analysis has shown that lowering the auto-enrolment earnings trigger to the national insurance threshold would help an additional 1.2 million people.
He commented that:
“A big majority of these people would be women, and a significant percentage from ethnic minorities, helping address stark gender and ethnicity pension gaps.”
