Catherine Foot, Director of the Standard Life Centre for the Future of Retirement, comments on the Living Wage Foundation’s ‘Life on a Low Pension’ report.
“As many as 17 million people are not saving enough to achieve the retirement they want, and the next two decades is when the effects of the savings crisis will really start to bite. The launch of a new Pensions Commission represents a critical opportunity to address how we tackle the looming savings crisis head on.
It’s worrying to see the impact of a low pension on people’s ability to meet everyday costs on housing and food in retirement, as well as the wider impacts on their quality of life. We often imagine retirement as a time for leisure and enjoyment but it’s clear for many this isn’t the reality, and retirees are facing bleak financial futures. We already know that as many as 17 million people are not saving enough to achieve the retirement they want, and the next two decades is when the effects of the savings crisis will really start to bite.
The launch of the new Pensions Commission is a critical opportunity to address how we tackle this looming savings crisis head on. There’s widespread consensus that pension saving needs to increase for all, especially lower earners, for more people to have a decent standard of living in retirement, with auto-enrolment a key tool to boosting savings rates.
Many employers, including the Phoenix Group, are stepping up to offer higher pension contributions on the level of a Living Pension. We know this isn’t an easy problem to solve, and the government and businesses need to come together to share a role in the cost of saving for retirement.”
