More than 30,000 people across Tatton are now saving towards their retirement, new figures show.

Employers must enrol staff aged 22 and over who earn more than £10,000 into a pension, as part of Government’s auto enrolment scheme aimed at encouraging more people to save for later life.

Figures from the Pensions Regulator show 31,000 workers from 1,970 businesses across the parliamentary constituency have been automatically enrolled in the saving scheme since it began in 2012.

Tatton MP and Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey said: “I am delighted such high numbers of businesses in the constituency are supporting their workers and helping them build a more secure future. Saving at a young age for pensions is vital and that is why I believe the automatic enrolment will change the way future generations think. It will become the norm that they are putting away money for later in life and what may seem like a different lifetime away, is being provided for.”

Nationally as of January, more than 1.032 million employers were signed up with 9.3 million employees registered in the scheme.

Ms McVey said: “We have made great success with this scheme but I know we need to go further and that is why we are going to lower the age for automatic enrolment to 18 which will benefit another 900,000 people across the country.”

The automatic enrolment scheme does not apply to self employed people but the Department for Work and Pensions is currently looking at ways of helping self employed people, who have different income and saving needs.