Half the Population of the UK Don’t Have Funds Set Aside for Retirement
The BBC recently revealed that about half of all the people living in the UK aged 20 to 60 have not been putting aside any funds for their retirement years. This does not mean that they do not have any savings for such purpose, but they haven’t been paying into a pension fund.
This survey conducted by Gfk NQP reports that the worst offenders are those in their 30’s, where only about one-third of those surveyed are planning for the later years in their life. Among those in their mid-40’s, about 45% of those surveyed are not paying any money into some kind of pension fund.
Most of the young people claim that with trying to pay off a mortgage and a vehicle as well as support a young family, they simply do not have any money left over for such a purpose. Others say that they really never thought about it and others have lost their jobs due to the redundancies caused by the recession and simply cannot afford it.
At age 25, retirement and a pension income seems a long way into the future.
For Tom Wainwright, an architectural assistant living in East London, paying into a pension is not something that is high on his list of priorities at this stage of his life.
“I haven’t given a pension any thought,” he said. “At the moment, I am just trying to hold down a steady job. I was made redundant because of the recession and have had to take a pay cut.”
Others who were surveyed and had no pension plans in place said that they had thought about it, but they did not know how to go about starting such a plan or finding one that to which they could contribute. Without having any money in such a plan, though, they felt confident that they would get along just fine when the time came for them to retire.
This is a false assumption for young people to make says Ed Gardner , chief executive officer of UK retirement and pensions savings at the insurance firm of Metcalfe. Fewer new employees are able to take advantage of generous pension plans when they join a company and they young people in the workforce today will have to rely heavily on pension schemes when they reach the age of retirement. He says that, “Unfortunately, younger people face even more challenges in saving for their retirement.”
Many people aged 45 – 60 are faced with the possibility of not being able to afford to retire and will have to work long after they once hoped to be able to stop working. Such is the prospective situation of Andrew and Rachel Knowles, aged 44 and 43.
Mr. Knowles did pay into pensions schemes over the years so that even though his job has been made redundant and he is now starting his own business he will not be able to retire at age 65. His wife’s situation is different. Mrs. Knowles is a chartered accountant, but by staying home over the years to look after their four children, she has not contributed to a pension plan.
Mr. Knowles believes that the concept of retirement today is not what it used to be and that most people now continue working well into their 70’s.
He said, “I am disillusioned with the general financial situation and pensions are a part of that. I think the Internet will offer a lot of opportunities for ad-hoc home based businesses (for people above working age).”
Mrs Knowles added that they accept the situation in which they find themselves simply because they do not have a pension to fall back on.
