Research by Peter Taylor-Gooby, a professor at the University of Kent has shown that working class people will rely more heavily on the Government for their pensions than other classes within our society. The report showed that there are differences in attitude between lower and middle earners, in their attitudes to retirement provision.
While the middle-income earners buy property and manage their savings and investments, lower income earners feel they have to rely on the state to provide for them later in life, as they believe there is no alternative.
The professor believes that the trust in the pension system has been damaged by a number of scandals, including the mis-selling in the 1990's and the Maxwell incident, and recent introductions of the second state pension and pension credits have still a long way to go before levels of trust are improved.
Our view
This is a sad fact. Many people place more priority 'on the now' than they do on the future. The reality is that if you asked every person what they thought about state pensions, many would say that they do not think the Government will look after them well. For most it is a simple question of whether they can afford to do more or not. Most people put food above pensions and rightly so. If people put cigarettes ahead of a pensions or other leisure items e.g. the National Lottery or holidays, then they generally will only have themselves to blame.
Learn more about State Pensions in the Pensions Adviser.com.