Millions of people could save more money for their retirement under new proposals to change pension auto-enrolment.
Auto-enrolment is where you're automatically placed into your employer’s workplace pension scheme.
To be auto-enrolled, you must be between the age of 22 and the state pension age, and earn above £10,000.
But there are proposals to lower the age limit for when you can be auto-enrolled from 22 to 18.
The lower earnings limit - the point from which your earnings are used to calculate the amount of pension contributions that will be paid into a scheme - is currently set at £6,240.
This would also be abolished as part of the proposals, which have now been backed by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
Removing the lower earnings limit could help to bring more lower earners and people working part-time jobs into automatic enrolment.
You can choose to opt out of a workplace pension and this is separate to any state pension you get in later life.
The Bill outlining the proposed changes cleared its first hurdle after MPs gave it an unopposed second reading.
Minister for Pensions Laura Trott said: "We know that these widely supported measures will make a meaningful difference to people's pension saving over the years ahead.
"Doing this will see the Government deliver on our commitment to help grow the economy and support the hard-working people of this country, particularly groups such as women, young people and lower earners who have historically found it harder to save for retirement."
Nigel Peaple, director of policy and advocacy at the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA), said: "Automatic enrolment has seen over 10 million people newly saving or saving more for a pension in the UK.
"This is a genuine success story. Combined with the new state pension, automatic enrolment ensures that many more people can meet some of the costs of later life."
He added: "The PLSA supports increasing the momentum in automatic enrolment by extending it to workers under age 22 and removing the lower earnings limit so that people save from the first pound of earnings.
"We have also long maintained that in order for savers to reach an adequate income in retirement, further increases should be undertaken over the next decade so that (automatic enrolment) rises from an 8% pension contribution today to around 12% in the early 2030s - split 50/50 between employers and employees."
Earlier this week, it was revealed the timetable for pensions dashboards is being pushed back.
