Currently, only 25% of self-employed people save into a private pension, compared to four in five employees, revealed a report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).

‘There is widespread agreement that there is an urgent need for policies addressing low pension participation among the self-employed’, the IFS stated.

This comes after as the Second Pensions Commission, briefed by the government in mid-2025 to evaluate the long-term future of pensions, highlighted the fact that just 4% of ‘wholly self-employed’ workers are saving for retirement.

The IFS report assessed data on pension contributions (known as COM100 data) linked to PAYE data for employees, and self assessment tax data for the self-employed.