Millions of workers are expected to be automatically enrolled into a workplace pension for the first time from 1 October.

The introduction of the scheme - which will start with employers with 120,000 or more staff, will have to enrol all eligible workers into pension schemes. Other companies will then begin to follow suit over the next six years.

The government launched the scheme in order to make it easier for people to save for their retirement. Currently, many workers do not take advantage of workplace pension schemes and benefit from contributions their employers make towards the pensions of participating members.

Ministers expect more than half a million new people will be saving into a workplace pension by Christmas.

Employers now have to automatically enrol all UK employees aged between 22 years-old and state pension age earning over £8,105 a year and who are not already in a pension at work. Workers who do not qualify to be automatically enrolled still have the right to join their employer's workplace pension if they want.

In the first four years of the scheme, workers contribute a minimum of 0.8% of earnings. Employers will then add the equivalent of 1% of their employee's earnings to the pot with tax relief adding another 0.2%.

The saved funds will then be invested in a company's current workplace pension scheme or by a government-backed scheme, such as the National Employment Savings Trust (Nest).

The automatic enrolment scheme was launched to arrest an old-age poverty crisis caused by people living longer and not saving enough to see them through their retirement years.

Recent official figures show that the number of private sector workers paying into a pension is at its lowest since records began in 1953.

In 2011, the number private sector employees saving into workplace pension schemes fell below three million, to 2.9m, for the first time.

The government expects the reforms will mean between six and nine million workers will be brand new savers or will save even more.