Danger ahead
The prospect of living in poverty or at least in tightened circumstances in old age is not daunting British workers.
One in three people currently at work plan to rely on whatever the state provides when they retire, according to research carried out for Baring Asset Management.
It’s easy to blame the recession for thinking more about today’s needs than those of a few decades away but the survey shows the number of people without their own pension scheme has increased 2 per cent a year for the past three years.
And plans for eleventh-hour retirement savings are not on the cards for many, as 24 per cent of those nearing retirement are still not part of a pension scheme. Gender also plays a part with more women than men lacking a pension arrangement.
Mario Valensise, chief investment officer, puts it down people burying their heads in the sand. Just as well then the UK is planning usher in a country-wide pension scheme that will automatically enrol employees without a workplace pension scheme.
But what a pity then the roll-out is being pushed back to 2016, especially for the UK’s 13 million workers banking on state largesse.
