Petition · past parliament · Department for Work and Pensions

Change the pension auto enrolment criteria for under-22s and low paid workers

Closed 82 signatures

What the petition asks

Lower the pension auto enrolment age from 22 to 18, and reduce the current £10,000 minimum annual salary threshold for auto enrolment. This would particularly benefit apprentices, and other young, low paid workers.
Only workers earning over £10,000 – and aged between 22 and State Pension age – must be automatically enrolled into a workplace pension by their employer. Therefore, thousands of apprentices aged under 22 are missing out on saving this extra bit of money, unless they opt in. Also women are more likely to be earning less than the £10,000 threshold. It seems ludicrous that apprentices are missing out on this saving which could be the difference between them eating or going hungry upon retiring.

Timeline

24 Mar 2021 Petition opened for signatures
24 Sep 2021 Closed to new signatures

Key facts

Signatures 82
Status Closed
Department Department for Work and Pensions
Opened 24 Mar 2021
Closed 24 Sep 2021

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Source: the official petition page. Last checked 15 Jul 2026.