The National Employment Savings Trust's (NEST) membership has more than doubled since April and its assets under management have increased to around £8m, it announced.

The National Employment Savings Trust's (NEST) membership has more than doubled since April and its assets under management have increased to around £8m, it announced.

According to its latest figures, NEST's new membership figure has increased to 210,000 from April when it reported membership figures of 100,000.

Commenting on NEST's increased membership figures, its chief executive Tim Jones said: "NEST is playing a critical role in ensuring that automatic enrolment is a success, and it is wrong to suggest that NEST isn't attracting members. Our membership figures and assets under management are increasing rapidly."

Jones said that before the start of auto-enrolment NEST made some estimates about potential volumes of members in the organisation at the end of March 2013, but did not allow for postponement.

He explained that the actual number of members at the end of that period reflected that most employers used their three months postponement period, so the variation in the figures is mainly about timing.

"We remain on track to have between two and five million members by the end of staging," Jones said.

He added that NEST's role in the workplace pension reforms is to complement other providers and said it was a "good thing" if other providers are able to offer good quality low cost pension provision for consumers.

Jones said: "NEST is ready to accept any employer that wants to use it, either as a sole scheme or alongside other provision, and is proud of the role it is playing in helping millions save for retirement."

First published 04.06.2013

monique_simpson@wilmington.co.uk