Most pension savers have no idea how much to put aside each month and want the government to set them minimum contribution levels.
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Shocking statistics that show how little most savers understand about their retirement savings show three out of four would prefer to be told how much to save rather than figure the problem out for themselves.
And one in five confessed they never check how their pension is performing, while 44% do not know how much money they have saved over the years.
The data was uncovered in research by fund manager BlackRock.
The firm asked more than 500 savers aged between 30 and 69 who are putting money into a direct contribution pension about their understanding of the schemes they were in.
Only a third on financial track
Only 11% were confident they could offer an accurate figure for the balance of their pension fund.
Although almost half (45%) wanted a decent return on their investment, 23% would be happy for someone else to manage their investments for them.
Two thirds did not consider they were on track to save enough money for a comfortable retirement.
A massive 47% believed they should save more; 43% wrongly considered the government would support them in retirement; 40% said they did not have enough money to make any savings and 27% save a minimum amount of money.
“Our survey shows that those saving into a workplace pension need greater guidance as to how much they need to save if they want to meet their needs in retirement. The increase in the contribution rate to 8% in April 2019 is a step in the right direction but could be misinterpreted as the magic number. We need to help savers understand that even 8% is unlikely to be enough for them to retire comfortably,” said Claire Finn, of BlackRock.
More help wanted
She explained that savers want more help in shaping their pension strategies.
“Employees are crying out for more guidance as to how much they need to be saving into their pension and they want their employer to focus on getting a good return on their hard-earned cash,” said Finn.
“This compares to schemes commonly prioritising keeping the underlying investments simple. We believe schemes should instead focus their simplicity on contribution rates, and prioritise an optimised default investment.”
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