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Under-35s
face pension misery BBC
News October
27, 2003 A
whole generation of under 35s will have little or no nest egg for their
retirement, according to the National Consumer Council. It
is warning the government that savings need to be simplified to prevent a
future pensions crisis. Many
young people on low incomes questioned by the National Consumer Council
said they did not have enough cash to start thinking about saving for
their retirement. Some said they
were struggling to juggle their day-to-day expenses with the need to repay
loans and credit card bills. But others said
they had lost confidence in pension providers, amid a decline in
occupational pension schemes and the falling value of the basic state
pension. The National
Consumer Council wants the government to tackle personal debt, offer
financial incentives to encourage younger people to save and provide
cheaper and simpler financial advice. The survey
found young people lacked confidence in making decisions about pensions
which led to them doing nothing, while their distrust of the government
over pensions meant any plan to compel them to save could be resented. NCC chairman
Deirdre Hutton said: "Thanks to the recent decline in good quality
occupational pension schemes, low returns for savers, and the dwindling
purchasing power of the state pension, government policy requires young
adults to start saving for retirement earlier than their parents. "But the
reality is that this is not happening. Only one in every three under-30s
is putting money aside for their old age. A no-nest-egg generation is
emerging. "Young people are aware of, and unsettled by, the pensions crisis, but they are suspicious of solutions that mean they must make big sacrifices today with no guarantees that this will bring them any real benefit tomorrow." Copyright
© 2002 Global Action on Aging |
