Auto-enrolment pension thresholds stay at £10,000, £6,240 and £50,270 for 2027-28
The Department for Work and Pensions has left all three limits unchanged while the Pensions Commission finishes its review, so employers' payroll rules stay as they are from April.
By Daily Oracles News Team2 min read
Employers will run automatic enrolment on the same earnings limits in the 2027-28 tax year as they do now. The Department for Work and Pensions published its annual review of the thresholds on Tuesday and left all three unchanged.
That means a worker must still earn at least £10,000 a year before their employer has to enrol them into a workplace pension, provided they are aged between 22 and State Pension age and usually work in Great Britain. Contributions continue to be worked out on earnings between a lower limit of £6,240 and an upper limit of £50,270. Under the legal minimums, the employer pays at least 3% of those qualifying earnings and the total going in must reach at least 8%.
The work and pensions secretary has to review the limits every tax year under the Pensions Act 2008. This time the department gave one main reason for holding them: the Pensions Commission is part-way through its wider look at the pension system and is due to publish its final report in early 2027. The department said changing the thresholds in the meantime could undermine stability.
Participation keeps rising
Because pay keeps rising while the £10,000 trigger stays put, more people cross it each year. The department estimates that private sector pension participation will total 17.4 million in 2027-28, around 48,000 more than in 2026-27.
The department said holding the lower limit keeps contributions flowing on a meaningful share of low and moderate earners' pay. It puts total private sector saving, counting employee and employer contributions and tax relief, at an estimated £100 billion in 2027-28, up from an estimated £98 billion this year.
The £50,270 upper limit caps the earnings on which employers must contribute. Higher earners, the department said, are more likely to have access to schemes paying more than the minimum, or to make their own arrangements.
People earning between £6,240 and £10,000 are not enrolled automatically but can opt in, and their employer must then pay the minimum contribution.
