Are you a pensions plodder?

Anyone bold enough to raise the topic of pensions with a colleague or even a friend  is likely to be met with a muted, mumbled response (pensions professionals apart). For it is a subject that many UK adults seem loathe to discuss. For many of us, our pensions knowledge is comporable to our understanding of quantum physics – desperately thin, a veritable land of confusion.

As a consequence of this reluctance to discuss the nuts and bolts of what is the basis of our future financial wellbeing, many of us prefer to do nothing, perhaps hoping for an unexpected financial  windfall such as a juicy inheritance.

And according to a survey by life assurance company Friends Life, ignorance is a major factor in our pensions inertia.  More than half (57%) of the 1,000 adults aged 18+ questioned said they found the subject of pensions ‘confusing.’

Even more worryingly, almost one in three of working adults (32%) said they are not currently making provision for a pension, a figure that rises to 48% for those aged under 35.

Ian Naismith, Head of Pensions Market Development for Scottish Widows, said: “Our Pensions Report this year clearly illustrates the stark difficulty we face in helping people to recognise the urgent need to take personal responsibility for their future. We need a step-change to overcome this ingrained inertia and help people prepare for their retirement.” 

The Scottish Widows Report found that nearly half (49%) of those who should be saving for retirement are failing to do so adequately and a fifth of people are failing to make any provision at all for their retirement. 

Although both Friends Life and Scottish Widows found that the majority of people they surveyed recognised that they needed to take personal responsibility for their future, many felt they did not have access to enough information to allow them to make well-informed decisions.  

Andy Briggs, Friends Life Chief Executive said: “The widely held belief that the future will take care of itself is a misconception we cannot ignore. I think individuals should shoulder part of the blame. Yes, we all have many choices facing us in life but what we need is a new age of personal responsibility rather than just relying on the government and our employers.”