5.2.2 Workplace pensions: NEST
In 2014, the UK government announced plenty of policy initiatives for pensions. One came with the announcement that, from 2017, those in state-backed workplace pension schemes, like the ones examined in the previous section, would have greater scope to invest in the NEST (National Employment Savings Trust) pension scheme.
NEST is the public organisation set up by the Pensions Act 2008 to offer pension products for employers offering workplace auto-enrolment schemes.
NEST started to take on pension fund members from 2012, when auto-enrolment into workplace pensions started to be offered by the larger employers in the UK. Under this scheme employees have to take action to opt-out of a workplace pension if they wish to avoid auto-enrolment. By 2019, 7.9 million workplace pension savers were invested in the NEST pension scheme (NEST, 2019).