Finance Choices
Young people shun pensions
Almost three 19 to 25-year-olds in four have not joined a company or personal pension scheme, with more than 90 per cent of them believing it is the Government's job to look after them in retirement.
However, just one 19 to 25-year-old in seven is confident that Westminster will be able to provide for them after they finish work, according to Clerical Medical's latest A snapshot of Modern Britain report.
But a third of this age group said that if pensions were easier to understand and buy, it would have a big impact on their behaviour.
Clerical Medical found this a potential source of optimism, ahead of the publication of the Pension Commission's report in Autumn 2006.
Overall, less than half (49 per cent) the UK' population said they were regularly contributing to a pension, with 55 per cent not confident they would enjoy a comfortable retirement.
"It is rare that a week goes by when weâ??re not reading about the UK' so called 'ensions gap'in the news. Therefore, it is frightening to discover that nearly half of the UK population appear to be ignoring this message, and subsequently failing to put aside some pension savings for retirement," said Graeme Riddoch, Clerical Medical sales director.
"In order to boost pension contributions, we believe that it is essential that the UK population is provided with simple to understand products, sound information, and visible incentives for saving," he added.
The report also found that over three quarters of UK adults think they should do more for their retirement, but two in five are putting off thinking about saving for retirement until a later date.
Surprisingly, almost one in five of over 55s (18 per cent) were amongst those putting off retirement plans, while 17 per cent of under-18s were already thinking about putting money away for later in life.
However, just one 19 to 25-year-old in seven is confident that Westminster will be able to provide for them after they finish work, according to Clerical Medical's latest A snapshot of Modern Britain report.
But a third of this age group said that if pensions were easier to understand and buy, it would have a big impact on their behaviour.
Clerical Medical found this a potential source of optimism, ahead of the publication of the Pension Commission's report in Autumn 2006.
Overall, less than half (49 per cent) the UK' population said they were regularly contributing to a pension, with 55 per cent not confident they would enjoy a comfortable retirement.
"It is rare that a week goes by when weâ??re not reading about the UK' so called 'ensions gap'in the news. Therefore, it is frightening to discover that nearly half of the UK population appear to be ignoring this message, and subsequently failing to put aside some pension savings for retirement," said Graeme Riddoch, Clerical Medical sales director.
"In order to boost pension contributions, we believe that it is essential that the UK population is provided with simple to understand products, sound information, and visible incentives for saving," he added.
The report also found that over three quarters of UK adults think they should do more for their retirement, but two in five are putting off thinking about saving for retirement until a later date.
Surprisingly, almost one in five of over 55s (18 per cent) were amongst those putting off retirement plans, while 17 per cent of under-18s were already thinking about putting money away for later in life.
posted by Barbara Gordon at 8:29 AM
Young people shun pensions
3 Comments:
When you've got several grand of student loan hanging around your neck where do you find the cash to join a fecking pension?
You stop spending all you money down the student union bar ;)
I think the key phrase in this is "if pensions were easier to understand and buy, it would have a big impact on their behaviour.".
With all the problems associated with pensions in the past and very little confidence in pension companies having really improved, where are you meant to put your money?
If pensions were like mortgages where you could move about if you found X company was doing better than Y company, then I think I'd have an awful lot more incentive to put the money aside. But at the moment I have to jump in at age 30 and hope I made the right decision for something that might not affect me for 40 years!
Better solution to be honest would be a secondary government backed pension. That way you're not paying vast 'management fees' to some shareholders and all the money is in theory being invested for your retirement.
Just as long as they don't use the current system of using the money we pay now to fund the current pensioners which means we're extremely reliant on people in the future paying for us...
Trev
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