U.K. workers in their late 20s and early 30s plan to save more in their pensions than older colleagues, despite the pressures of student debt and buying property, a survey for the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) shows.
Half (53%) of the respondents ages 25 to 34 plan to increase the amount they save toward retirement in the coming year. By contrast, only 26% of those ages 45 to 54 say they will save more, and the survey average was just 38%.
Surprisingly, half (47%) of those from the 1980s generation said they wished they had taken more interest in saving for retirement at an earlier stage. This was the highest of any age group and above the average of 42%.
And almost half (43%) of those ages 25 to 34 said they had talked about pensions more in the past year than in previous years. Only those much closer to retirement ages 55 to 64 showed more interest (56%).
The unexpected results came in the latest NAPF Workplace Pensions Survey of more than 2,000 people, run by the pollster Populus. In its survey work, the NAPF usually finds that interest in pension issues increases with age and that younger people are much less engaged.
The findings appear to reflect a growing awareness among younger people that has been driven by recent public debate about pensions, changes to the state pension age and new rules to auto-enrol all workers in a pension.
“These results are counterintuitive but encouraging. A few years ago, these young workers were nicknamed the ostrich generation, because they knew they needed to plan their retirement but were doing nothing about it,” says Joanne Segars, chief executive of NAPF.
Of the 25- to 34-year-olds covered by the survey, 48% are already a member of a workplace pension, and 65% of those who are not yet in a workplace pension say they are likely to stay in their new pension when they are auto-enrolled, which is markedly higher than the average of 50%.
But the survey also highlighted causes for concern. Just under half (44%) of the 25 to 34 group do not know whether their pension is a good one or not, compared with 32%, on average. And 45% are not comfortable with their approach to saving for retirement, which is higher than the survey average of 37%.