Pensions report - ONS

ended 20. April 2022

The ONS this morning published a report on Employee workplace pensions. Two key findings were:

  • The workplace pension participation rate in the UK was at 79% (22.6 million employees) in April 2021, up slightly from 78% in 2020; a growth partly explained by increased public sector employment driven by the government's response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
  • In April 2021, the gap in employee workplace pension participation rates between the public (91%) and private sectors (75%) was among its lowest levels, mainly driven by increased participation in the private sector up from 32% in 2012.

If you can get some quick thoughts down ASAP, we will get your responses out to the media. No need for an essay, just a couple of quick pars will do. More people are saving, but is it enough to defuse the pensions time bomb?

2 responses from the Newspage community

Premium
Adrian Kidd
Chartered Wealth Manager at EQ Financial Planning
"While this may appear good news, the numbers that really matter are what people are contributing. I suspect, and fear, that rates of contribution are nowhere near what they need to be and any plans to uplift contributions among employees will be shelved to pay for higher living costs elsewhere. The current level of inflation could hit people's desire to contribute more hard."
Premium
Joshua Gerstler
Chartered Financial Planner / Owner at The Orchard Practice
"Most of the UK population will be unable to enjoy their retirement on the state pension alone, so it is great to see people taking ownership of their retirement by participating in workplace pensions and personal pensions. The next challenge is to get people to realise how important it is to contribute in excess of the statutory minimum contributions. The pensions time bomb is ticking and the statutory minimum contributions are not enough to defuse it."