Workplace pensions: auto-enrolment, opting out, and your pension on family leave

Updated 8 November 2026

Several pages have claimed that pension auto-enrolment became a day-one right in October 2026, or that pension rules on maternity and adoption leave changed in 2026. Neither is true. Here are the rules that actually apply.

Who must be automatically enrolled?

The government's workplace pensions guidance says your employer must automatically enrol you into a pension scheme, and pay into it, if all of these apply:

• you are classed as a worker
• you are aged between 22 and State Pension age
• you earn at least £10,000 a year
• you usually work in the UK

There are exceptions, for example if you have already given or received notice to leave. If you earn less, or are younger, you can usually ask to join, and your employer must contribute if you earn more than £520 a month (£120 a week). Our page on worker or employee status explains who counts as a worker.

Can your employer delay enrolling you?

Yes, by up to three months. This is called postponement. Your employer must tell you about the delay in writing, and must let you join in the meantime if you ask. Enrolment is not a day-one right, and no change in 2026 made it one.

The Pensions (Extension of Automatic Enrolment) Act 2023 gives the government powers to lower the age for automatic enrolment below 22 and to reduce or remove the lower earnings limit for contributions. Those powers need regulations before anything changes, and no start date has been set.

How much is paid in?

The legal minimum total contribution is 8% of your qualifying earnings, of which your employer must pay at least 3%. In most automatic enrolment schemes, contributions are based on your earnings between £6,240 and £50,270 a year before tax. Your scheme rules may be more generous, and you usually also get tax relief on your own contributions. Your total earnings for this purpose include statutory maternity, paternity, adoption, shared parental, parental bereavement and neonatal care pay.

Your contributions should appear on your payslip. If money is being taken from your pay but not reaching your pension, report it to The Pensions Regulator, and check your payslips against your pension statements.

Opting out, and being re-enrolled

You can leave a workplace pension, called opting out, by contacting the pension provider. If you opt out within a month of being enrolled, you get back any money you have paid in. If you opt out later, your contributions usually stay in the pension until you retire.

Your employer must re-enrol you every three years if you still qualify, and will write to you when it does. Your employer must not encourage or force you to opt out, and must not dismiss or discriminate against you for being in a pension scheme.

If you change jobs

Your workplace pension still belongs to you when you leave. If you stop paying into it, the money stays invested and you get a pension from it when you reach the scheme's pension age. When you start a new job, you will be enrolled into your new employer's scheme if you qualify.

You may be able to keep paying into your old pension, or combine your old and new pensions; ask your pension providers about the options. If you were in a defined benefit scheme for less than two years, you may be able to get a refund of what you paid in, or transfer the value to another scheme, depending on the scheme's rules.

Keep your annual pension statements and the provider's contact details, and update your address with each provider when you move. That makes it much easier to track old pots later.

Your pension during maternity and other family leave

This is the part most often got wrong. The government's guidance says:

• During paid leave, you and your employer carry on making contributions. Yours are based on what you are actually paid, but your employer's are based on the salary you would have received if you were not on leave.
• During maternity leave, if you are being paid, contributions continue. If you are not being paid, your employer still has to make contributions in the first 26 weeks of your leave, ordinary maternity leave. After that, it only has to if your contract says so.
• During unpaid leave, you may be able to keep paying in; ask your employer or the scheme.

None of this changed in 2026. Our page on maternity, paternity and parental leave covers the leave and pay rules themselves.

If something goes wrong

If you have not been enrolled when you should have been, or contributions are missing, raise it with your employer in writing first, and check your written statement of particulars for what it says about pensions. If that does not fix it, you can contact The Pensions Regulator, which oversees automatic enrolment. If you are treated badly or dismissed because of your pension, raise a grievance and get advice about a tribunal claim promptly.