With pension’s crisis looming survey suggests glimmer of hope

The UK’s looming pension’s crisis has been further underlined by the findings of a new survey showing 30 per cent of people aged 45 – 54 and 12 percent of those over 55 have not started saving for their retirement!

The research, undertaken by financial services company Edward Jones, paints a gloomy outlook for many people who seem to be facing an uncertain financial future in later life.

However there may be a glimmer of hope as 46 per cent of those in the 25 to 34 age group and 57 per cent of those aged 35 to 44 have started saving for their retirement.

Commented Andrew James, retirement planning manager at Edward Jones; “The most worrying aspect is the high proportion of middle aged people who have made no provision for their retirement. They are the very category who will find it most difficult to make adequate provision simply because time is running out.

“Those people are from a generation brought up to believe the state would provide them with a good standard of living in their retirement which is simply not the case today. I fear many of them may be working past normal retirement age.”

The survey shows of those aged over 55 who had started saving for retirement, the majority started to do so when they were between 35 and 50.

“The encouraging findings are younger people seem to be getting the message about saving for their retirement, with nearly half those aged 24 to 34 claiming to have started to do so,” added Andrew James.

“It is vital both the government and all those involved in the pensions industry do all they can to keep driving the message home.

“We would also like to see clearer guidelines on pension rules to allow the industry time to talk to people about saving for the long-term and helping to educate individuals in the UK about how tax efficient saving for retirement can be - and the earlier people start the easier it will be!”