Companies in Oxfordshire with five or more employees will soon be receive a letter from the Government warning them that they have until October 8 to set up a pension scheme.

Employers who miss the deadline face a £50,000 fine.

Initial take-up of stakeholder pensions has been "encouraging", said the Association of British Insurers. It said 90,000 employers had set up the new low-cost pension scheme by the end of June, and it expects take-up to accelerate as the autumn deadline approaches.

According to the group, during the three months to the end of June, 224,506 stakeholder pensions were sold, though it added that these figures would have been boosted by conversions from pre-existing pension arrangements.

Mary Francis, director general of the ABI, said: "Stakeholder pensions have made an encouraging start.

"There are plenty of challenges ahead, but we are pleased to see that many employers have already taken the plunge."

She added that during the autumn sales figures were likely to be boosted by employers putting stakeholders in place ahead of the October deadline.

Pensions Minister Ian McCartney said: "Providing access to a stakeholder pension is not onerous. Employers do not have to set up and run a scheme themselves.

"All that employers have to do is consult their employees about choosing a scheme, designate a registered stakeholder pension scheme and offer payroll deductions for employees who want to contribute."