A recent report from Liverpool Victoria has revealed some startling statistics on savings and retirement in the UK. Perhaps most worrying are the figures surrounding those who have nothing saved for when they finish working: over a quarter of those yet to retire have no pension pot, with one in five of over-55s included in this figure. Additionally, 15% of those aged 55 or older admitted they didn’t know how much they would need to support themselves during retirement, and 14% didn’t know how much they had saved.
Looking at the concerns people have about their retirement, over half of people aged 35-44 said they were worried that they aren’t financially prepared to retire. But only around a quarter said they would think about getting independent pension guidance, with around a fifth admitting they didn’t know where to go for advice on retirement.
Many were also worried about when they would be able to give up work, with 38% of those in the 45-54 bracket worried that they won’t be able to retire at the age they would like to. However, only one in two people in the same group are making contributions to their pension every month and 29% of them said they weren’t prepared to forego any of their regular forms of expenditure to pay into their pension pot. The list of luxuries that could be given up included gambling, takeaway food, holidays abroad and music streaming services.
Elsewhere, the report offered some less surprising statistics. 36% of respondents said they saw household bills as being their highest monthly expense during retirement, with mortgage or rent payments coming in second with 19%. Even though retirement age and financial readiness came high in the concerns respondents had about their retirement, the most cited worry across all age groups was maintaining good health as they got older.
All of this highlights the risks that people are exposing themselves, and their families to, and the potential exposure to employers in having ageing workforces who cannot afford to retire and so continue to work thus stopping the traditional cycle of new blood coming into industry.
A big part of the solution to this is for employers to facilitate financial education, guidance and/or advice sessions for their staff with qualified experts. Such a strategy could cover a variety of topics, with different messages for different age groups, so that they are engaging and relevant to the audience, with the opportunity for group and individual Q&A sessions.
By educating and empowering employees, employers tend to find that productivity can increase with stress related absences reduced, as people start to understand where they are and in which direction they are heading.
To get our thoughts on how such sessions could help you and your employees please contact your normal Creative consultant or email us on info@creativeeb.co.uk
- The value of you policy may go down as well as up. You may not get back what you initially contributed
