Back in 2012 the savings rules changed.

Starting with the biggest firms and then being pushed out to until everyone – from corner shops to Tesco – was included, bosses were told they had to pay into savings on behalf of their staff.

Every worker was automatically put into a pension scheme, with money coming straight from their salaries and being saved for their retirement.

You could opt out – if you liked – but as long as you were saving your boss had to top it up too.

It broadly worked. The number of employees participating in workplace pensions increased to 17.7 million, up from 10.7 million in 2012.

The total amount saved reached £90.3 billion a year in 2017 – or £5,100 each – up £4.3 billion from the year before.

Tom Selby, senior analyst at AJ Bell, said: "The early stages of automatic enrolment have been an enormous success."

Except there’s a gap. Because while millions more people are now saving for their retirement with a little help from their boss, huge numbers are being excluded too.

The people barred from the free money

For all the positives, there are two sorts of worker who simply don’t get the extra help.

Firstly, anyone self-employed. There are almost five million people working for themselves in the UK doing everything from cleaning to driving an Uber or tax consulting for multinationals.

But while 84% of eligible staff are now enrolled in a workplace savings scheme, just 14% of self employed Brits are currently paying into a pension.

It’s not hard to see why.

"A key barrier for some self-employed is low and variable income, coupled with cashflow challenges. This means many are prioritising making ends meet, paying bills and investing in their business," said Aegon pensions director Steven Cameron.

On top of that, standard pensions funds mean locking your cash away.

"Pension funds offer valuable tax incentives but are not accessible in emergencies before age 55," Cameron said.

The Conservative Manifesto ahead of the last election promised to make auto enrolment available to the self-employed, but currently the plan to do that is weak at best.

Pensions Minister Guy Opperman outlined explained the current state of them as: “Testing behaviourally inspired messages and tech tools, which may prompt self-employed individuals to save through a range of approaches in relation to both joining a pension scheme, and facilitating and making regular saving into pensions or other savings vehicles."

Analysts were unimpressd.

“It is hard to see how the set of interventions and trials outlined by the Government today amount to making auto-enrolment available to the self-employed," Selby said.

“We would urge the DWP to engage not only with industry and the self-employed but also regulators to ensure comprehensive, workable solutions are brought forward," he added.

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The other 9million excluded

It’s not just people working for themselves that have missed out on the savings revolution, a worryingly large number of traditional staff are missing out as well.

"There are still over 9 million employees who haven’t been enrolled due to their ineligibility," said Tom McPhail, head of policy at Hargreaves Lansdown.

Anyone who earns less than £10,000, is under 21 or over state pension age (currently 65, but set to rise from next year) falls outside the scope of auto enrolment.

Frustratingly, that’s £10,000 per job. This effectively means someone working part time for several employers doesn’t get enrolled in a pension unless they make £10,000 in each no matter what they make overall.

This effectively means not only are you missing out on retirement savings, but your boss pays you less than your colleagues.

It’s a particular problem for women – who are more likely to work in multiple jobs than men.

Kate Smith, head of pensions at Aegon, said: “We know that more women than men don’t meet the eligibility criteria with almost a third effectively being excluded from workplace pensions as they earn less than £10,000 a year.

“Auto-enrolment doesn’t allow for people with multiple jobs to combine their earnings and with women being more likely than men to have multiple jobs, this creates a problem for the future.

"This discrepancy will continue to fuel pension inequality, unless changed.”

Fortunately, the solution here is simple. Scrap the £10,000 earnings threshold. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like the Government has any plans to do this.

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