Retirement savings battle gets harder

24/11/2009

The recession has damaged people's willingness to save for retirement - storing up money problems for the future in many cases.

Analysis from the Pensions Advisory Service suggests that it has become "harder" to persuade future retirees that they should begin to save for a pension, or to increase their existing savings.

This trend, which could also increase the number of elderly people seeking debt help after trying to make ends meet through credit cards and personal loans, comes despite evidence that many people are concerned about the state of their retirement finances.

Recent figures from The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and BlackRock showed that 56 per cent of Brits are worried that they will not have enough savings to retire on.

However, 55 per cent also said that they are not currently putting money in to a company pension scheme.

Jason Collis, workplace team technical advisor at the Pensions Advisory Service, said: "It has become a harder battle to convince people that they should be saving for their retirement, even though it is becoming a bigger issue as people are living longer."

He added: "[Employees] have to take charge of their own retirement personally because they can't rely on any one employer that they have worked with throughout their life to look after them."

Kevin Still, director of EuroDebt, confirmed that the over 60s are an area of particular concern when it comes to managing their debts.

"Analysis of our current client base shows that of those over 60, almost one in three still have a mortgage and the average unsecured debt for these homeowners is just under £40,000," he said.

"So the big question has to be, what happens to these people as they get older and have the prospect of retirement?"

Tags; Budgeting Advice, Retirement Money Problems,

Regional Debt Advice; Debt Advice Battle,

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