NEW employees could automatically become members of their company's pension schemes under government proposals to tackle the pensions crisis.

The Department for Work & Pensions said it was exploring a range of options to get people to save more for their retirement - including automatically enrolling new staff to their company scheme unless they chose to opt out.

Other measures being looked at are forcing new members of staff to decide actively whether or not to join a company scheme, and getting people to commit potential future earnings to pension saving.

The government also unveiled a new active retirement planner which aims to give people a clear idea of what retirement income they can expect both in terms of private and state provision.

The tool would enable people to see projections of their retirement income, as well as the options available to them to increase it, such as the impact of increasing their contributions, or retiring a few years later.

Work & Pensions Secretary Andrew Smith said: "The state of your pension should be as important as the state of your health, we want to provide people with the tools to make informed decisions about their future.

"The decisions people make about retirement are among the most important they face. We all get a lot of information on pensions, but too often we don't understand how it relates to our own retirement prospects."

It is estimated that Britons are currently saving £27 billion a year less than they need to in order to enjoy a comfortable retirement.