A typical member of a company pension scheme receives employer pension contributions of £2,232 a year, at 8.4% of annual salary, according to insurer Prudential.
This amounts to £91,512 over an average working life of 41 years on a salary of £26,664 a year. However, self-employed workers without access to a company pension scheme miss out on this substantial sum towards their retirement funding.
Stan Russell, retirement expert at Prudential, said: "We know from our research that a significant proportion of self-employed workers have no private pension and will rely solely on the state pension in retirement."Often this is because they have prioritised the needs of their business over saving into a pension. However, the state pension alone is not enough for a good standard of living in retirement, which is why saving as much as possible into a pension from an early stage is crucial."
Although there are signs that the scheme will encourage more people to accrue funds for retirement, experts have warned that workers may struggle to know what to do with their money when they retire.
"Pension schemes should have a duty to deliver a good retirement income for members, not just to look after pots that are being built up. In the longer term we need to think about how new risk-sharing models can do better than traditional annuities."
The self-employed cannot take advantage of the government's automatic enrolment scheme, launched in October 2012 to boost workplace saving into pensions.
Although there are signs that the scheme will encourage more people to accrue funds for retirement, experts have warned that workers may struggle to know what to do with their money when they retire.
Research from the Association of British Insurers shows that about a third of pension investors are unaware of rules that could allow them to boost the income they get when they use their funds to buy an annuity.
Despite a new code for pension providers, launched in March and designed to improve consumers' choices, the research found only 66% of retirees were aware of enhanced annuities, which offer a larger annual pay out to those who have certain medical conditions or have made certain lifestyle choices.
Auto-enrolment schemes, aimed at placing up to 10m people into workplace pensions, are not currently required to offer the option of comparing annuities for the best returns.
Tom McPhail, head of pensions research at Hargreaves Lansdown, said that for auto-enrolment to succeed the government needed to ensure that savers were helped to find the best annuity.
"We have been encouraging pension investors to shop around and it is great that more and more people are doing that, but we also need to do more to ensure that when they do shop around, they get the best possible outcome," he said.
"The financial consequences for individuals of not getting the best possible deal can range from simply missing out on thousands of pounds of income through to leaving a spouse destitute. It is vital that the government acts now to ensure that good decumulation is made part of the auto-enrolment process."
Craig Berry, pensions policy officer for the TUC, said: "The focus of policy makers and too many schemes is building up a big pot while saving, and neglecting what we do with the pot when people retire.
"We expect savers to fend for themselves in the annuities market, but when this is so complex it is hardly surprising that so many stick with their existing provider, even when it is not the best deal.
"Pension schemes should have a duty to deliver a good retirement income for members, not just to look after pots that are being built up. In the longer term we need to think about how new risk-sharing models can do better than traditional annuities."
