Number of employers in the UK paying into employee pension schemes from 2022 to 2024

FOI reference - FOI-421

Date - 22 October 2025

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Request

Between the period 02/05/2022 and 06/08/2024 in the UK under the Pension Regulator jurisdiction and the Pension Act. 

• How many employers in the UK were paying into employee pension schemes?
• How many these employers were:
  1. between 1-9 employees
  2. between 10-49 employees
  3. between 50-249 employees
  4. over 250 employees
• How many of these employers had 25 consecutive late payments to employee pension schemes (i.e. missed the legal due date e.g. 22nd month following or 19th for cheques deadline)
  • Of these employers, how many were in each classification a-d (employee numbers) and what % did this represent.
• How many of these employers had at least 21 out of 25 material payment failures (e.g. 90 days or more past the legal due date)
  • Of these employers, how many were in each classification a-d (employee numbers above) and what % did this each represent 
• Within the number of companies defined as 25 consecutive legal due date breaches, how many ultimately went into insolvency / bankrupt to the latest available data and what % was this.
• Within the number of companies with at least 21 material payment failures out of 25 (90 days past legal due date), how many ultimately went into insolvency / bankrupt to the latest available data and what % was this.

On 6 November 2025, you kindly provided the following responses to our clarification questions.

1. Population of employers paying into employee pension scheme
   
   Please confirm which population you want us to report on:
   
   Employers which made at least one contribution between 2 May 2022 and 6 August 2024. This option would include employers which started or stopped during the period.

2. Employer size bands
   
   Workforce size changes over time. Please confirm how you want size assigned to each employer for the banding:
   
   Size at the first relevant event in the period (first contribution or first report)

3. 25 consecutive late payments
   
   Our records use pension provider “schedule due dates”, which reflect payroll frequency. Many schemes run weekly or fortnightly schedules. Once a provider reports a failure, some providers submit multiple reports in a single calendar month until the account is up to date. We do not hold a reliable month by month series for every employer, so a “consecutive monthly late payment” count would not be feasible from our data. Please confirm whether one of the following alternatives meets yours needs: 
   
   Employers with payment failure reports spanning at least 25 consecutive scheduled periods, measured by schedule due dates. This would not align to calendar months and would be subject to data limitations outlined above.

4. At least 21 out of 25 material payment failures
   
   Providers have a duty to report material payment failures to us. We do not hold a complete picture of non-material failures. The “21 out of 25” framing assumes sight of both material and non-material failures, which we do not have. Please confirm whether the following meets your needed instead:
   
   Employers with at least 21 material payment failure reports between 2 May 2022 and 6 August 2024, with the a-d size breakdown and percentages within the population you confirm under point 1.

Finally, on 13 November you provided the following update to your request. The actual material payment failures have been confirmed at 22 not 21 now. Given this, please can I have the answers for both 21 and 22.

Response

I confirm that we hold the information you have requested. Below I have provided the information under the corresponding questions.

Between the period 2 May 2022 and 6 August 2024 in the UK under the Pension Regulator jurisdiction and the Pension Act. 

• How many employers in the UK were paying into employee pension schemes? Total - 479,246
  
  How many these employers were:
  
  1. between 1-9 employees - 82,331
  2. between 10-49 employees - 215,035
  3. between 50-249 employees - 132,904
  4. over 250 employees - 48,976

Note: These figures are a count of employers which made at least one contribution between 2 May 2022 and 6 August 2024. This therefore includes employers which started or stopped contributing during the period. These figures exclude employers who share a PAYE scheme with another employer as we do not hold data which tells us which of the employers made the contribution. Size bandings are based on the first point in time within the period at which the employer either paid scheme contributions or were reported for a late payment of scheme contributions.

• How many of these employers had at least 21 out of 25 material payment failures (e.g. 90 days or more past the legal due date): total - 1,334 (0.28% [of 479,246])
  
  Of these employers, how many were in each classification a-d (employee numbers above) and what % did this each represent
  
  1. between 1-9 employees – 154 (0.03% [of 479,246])
  2. between 10-49 employees – 659 (0.14%)
  3. between 50-249 employees - 413 (0.09%)
  4. over 250 employees – 108 (0.02%)

• Within the number of companies with at least 21 material payment failures out of 25 (90 days past legal due date), how many ultimately went into insolvency/bankrupt to the latest available data and what % was this: total - 38 (0.01% [of 479,246])
  
  1. between 1-9 employees – 1 (0.00% [of 479,246])
  2. between 10-49 employees – 24 (0.01%)
  3. between 50-249 employees - 9 (0.00%)
  4. over 250 employees – 4 (0.00%)

• How many of these employers had at least 22 out of 25 material payment failures (e.g. 90 days or more past the legal due date): total - 1,248 (0.26% [of 479,246])
  
  Of these employers, how many were in each classification a-d (employee numbers above) and what % did this each represent:
  1. between 1-9 employees – 143 (0.00% [of 479,246])
  2. between 10-49 employees – 620 (0.01%)
  3. between 50-249 employees - 381 (0.01%)
  4. over 250 employees – 104 (0.00%)

• Within the number of companies with at least 22 material payment failures out of 25 (90 days past legal due date), how many ultimately went into insolvency / bankrupt to the latest available data and what % was this: total - 36 (0.01% [of 479,246])
  
  1. between 1-9 employees – 1 (0.00% [of 479,246])
  2. between 10-49 employees – 23 (0.00%)
  3. between 50-249 employees - 9 (0.00%)
  4. over 250 employees – 3 (0.00%)

Note: The insolvency figures are based on instances where the employer record with Companies House  shows that their status changed to insolvent after the date of the last late payment report received within the period in question.