The National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) found that 9% of employees chose to leave ‘auto-enrolment’ pension schemes since the initiative was launched a year ago.

The Government had previously forecast that up to a third of workers would opt out.

Some 1.6 million workers have joined workplace pensions in the last year, according to the Department for Work and Pensions.

The NEST survey found that a third of those opting out of auto-enrolment did so because they could not afford it.

Some 15% of those deciding to leave said they were saving through other means, while 14% said they were too close to retirement.

Most of those deciding to stay in thought it was time to start saving for retirement.

Auto-enrolment launched a year ago and compels employers to automatically enrol certain staff into a pension scheme and make contributions towards it.