The Pension Commission has estimated that 9.6 million people aged 35 and over in work are not saving enough for retirement. These figures follow a seminar concerning the pensions crisis, where Adair Turner, who's report on this matter is due out in the Autumn, said that the seminar was aimed at concluding what options were acceptable, and agreement on what the way forward might be.
The participants were largely in favour of automatic involvement, but there was limited support for compulsion. At this event, the Commission announced the extent of the lack of contributions to private pension schemes, with figures claiming that 11.3 million working people in the UK are not making any contributions to any private scheme. The Commissions first report, published last year, found that only 44% of people have a good understanding of pension issues, and only 17% of basic rate and 28% of higher rate taxpayers were able to correctly identify the tax relief rates that apply to pensions.
Our view
We must have commented hundreds of times in this section. People need to be educated to save and save regularly and this must start early in Nurseries and Pre-School classes!