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Survey suggests half of Brits have no pension
July 21st, 2009
The BBC recently conducted a survey to determine whether the participants were contributing to any kind of pension scheme. The results showed that almost half of all adults aged between 20 and 60 have no pension.
The survey of 1,358 people by GfK NOP – a leading market research and consumer insight agency, suggests the situation was worst among under 30s, with around 1 in 3 – 36% putting anything aside towards pension schemes or savings accounts.
Many young people cannot afford to make contributions, with a number trading it with paying off debts such as credit cards or loans.
The survey showed that 45 percent of participants aged between 41 and 60 are not contributing towards a pension.
There are several reasons for this, which include the large rate of unemployment in the current climate, as well as many women that never joined a scheme due to leaving full time employment at pregnancy.
Many of those that fell into the younger age bracket said that the reason they had never appled for a one was either because they were not aware of the procedures required to set one up, or that they were reluctant to start worrying about retirement now with it being a number of years away.
Although 36 percent of respondents aged below 30 had a pension, around 50 percent of respondents said that they felt confident that they would have a comfortable retirement.
Ed Gardner, chief executive of UK retirement and savings at pension and insurance firm Metlife, said young people shouldn’t assume that this would be the case. The days of generous final salary pension schemes are diminishing, so the next generation of pension planners may end up relying on defined contribution pension schemes, which generally offer lower returns.
“Unfortunately the tide has turned and younger people face even more challenges in saving for their retirement” said Mr Gardner.
Those that are still without a pension should start thinking about what they will need to save in order to retire at 65 and have enough money to last for around 25 years.
“What you will find is that many people are currently saving nowhere near enough,” Mr Gardner said.
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