The Society of Pension Professionals said the revival of the government’s landmark Pension Commission is good news as it will consider a wide range of potential solutions rather than focusing solely on automatic enrolment.

The SPP has called for pensions adequacy to be reviewed on numerous occasions.

It said the DWP’s research, which shows that more than a third of working age people, 12.5m people, are not saving enough for retirement, helps to demonstrate both the need for action and the scale of the challenge.

Sophia Singleton, SPP president, said: “There are delivery challenges - political, social and economic - in increasing minimum AE contribution rates, but these are not insurmountable.

“We commend the Government for considering a range of other solutions beyond AE, not least because AE covers less than two thirds of the UK’s working population and because there are so many under pensioned groups – women, disabled people, those from an ethnic minority and many in the LGBTQ+ community.”

She said a collaboration between industry, government and savers “is needed to secure our shared ambition of pensions adequacy for all and launching reviving the Pensions Commission kick-starts that process.”

Last month the SPP warned that rumoured changes to salary sacrifice would cause confusion, reduce benefits to employees, and disincentivise pension savings.

SPP is the representative body for the wide range of providers of advice and services to pension schemes, trustees and employers. Its members include actuaries, lawyers, professional trustees, DC consultants, investment managers, providers, administrators, covenant assessors, and other pension specialists.

It was founded in 1958 as the Society of Pension Consultants, bringing together professionals to positively influence pension policy, support the development of legislation and provide members with access to technical information and insight into key industry policy debates. In 2014, it renamed as The Society of Pension Professionals, to broaden the range of professionals engaged in membership.