Half of workers unaware of pensions change Ten million workers are in the dark over the biggest workplace pensions change in decades, according to research. As UK employers get ready for the October start of auto-enrolment, the Scottish Widows Workplace Pensions Report 2012 revealed that 52 per cent of workers - equivalent to 9.9m people in the UK - are not aware of the impending shake-up. IN Pensions Auto-enrolment will initially see employees of the UK's biggest companies automatically entered into their workplace pension schemes and will extend to all other employers during the next five years. It will require all employers to enrol workers over the age of 22 and earning more than £8,105 into workplace pensions. Employers and staff will have to make minimum contributions. The report revealed that knowledge of the scheme is particularly poor among those at whom the plans are targeted, with only a third of employees on an income of less than £20,000 a year conscious of the changes. "Auto-enrolment is designed for people who traditionally don't have access to a workplace pension scheme, such as small employers or those with lower incomes," said Lynn Graves, head of business development for corporate pensions at Scottish Widows. It is clear that information is still not reaching the audience it is intended to target. In spite of the lack of knowledge about auto-enrolment, those who were aware of the scheme were overwhelmingly in favour of it, said Scottish Widows. Only 11 per cent of the 5,200 UK workers surveyed said they planned to opt out of auto-enrolment, with a third of them stating the main reason for this was a concern that they would not be able to afford the contributions. Caroline Rookes, director of private pensions at the Department of Work and Pensions, said in reaction to the report: "Our aim is that the state provides a decent basic income, which supports people in planning for their retirement and improves incentives for people to save. Auto-enrolment will ensure all qualifying workers have access to a workplace pension and overcome savings inertia by requiring an active decision not to save. The Scottish Widows research found there had been an increase in the average amount that people are willing to save for retirement. The sum that workers are willing to pay into their workplace pensions has doubled since last year from £37.50 a month to £76.95, revealing a substantial shift in understanding of the levels of payment required. But experts warned this would not be enough to provide individuals with an acceptable standard of living in retirement. "As a nation we are slowly waking up to the reality of how we are going to be able to fund our retirement, with many people recognising that they can't solely rely on the state to provide the majority of their income in old age," said Ms Graves.