The Office of Fair Trading is conducting a study into workplace pension schemes to determine if defined contribution schemes deliver best value for money.
There are currently four million people saving into a workplace scheme and the value of annual contributions is expected to increase to £11bn by 2018 thanks to auto-enrolment schemes.
The OFT wants to see whether competition between providers will work in the best interest of savers to deliver them low-cost, high quality pension schemes.
The study will look at how pension providers compete with each other, whether smaller firms face difficulties over pension decisions and whether they receive appropriate help and advice.
It will also look at whether there is sufficient pressure on pension providers to keep charges low and the barriers to switching between schemes.
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Mary Starks, senior director in the OFT's services, infrastructure and public markets group, said: "The UK workplace pensions market is set for rapid growth and change over the next six years, in particular with the introduction of automatic enrolment. It is important that these savers get a good deal. "We want to take a look at the market now to ensure that providers are competing to offer the best possible deals, and that the choices made by employers mean that employees are saving into good pension schemes for their retirement."
The OFT will be working closely with the Department for Work and Pensions, the Pensions Regulator and the Financial Services Authority to complete the work. It expects to complete the study by August.

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