The number of people contributing to pension savings through defined contribution plans – either company schemes or personal pensions – looks set to overtake the number of those who are contributing to defined benefit pensions run by their employers.

The total of those actively contributing to private sector employer sponsored pensions was 2.7m in 2007, but 900,000 of those were in defined contribution schemes where individuals bear the investment risk. A further 6.9m people were saving through personal pensions, bringing the total in defined contribution schemes to 7.8m people, according to the Office for National Statistics’ Pension Trends report.