Irish people are convincing themselves that they are younger than they are and are using this as the reason to avoid thinking about a starting a pension.
- 69% STILL have no pension cover
- Rising to 75% for private sector workers
- 54% unaware of tax benefits of pension savings
- Pensions not a priority for the Kylie and Bono generation
Irish people are convincing themselves that they are younger than they are and are using this as the reason to avoid thinking about a starting a pension. To coincide with the 31 October pension deadline Hibernian Life & Pensions is issuing a wake-up call to the Irish population – grow up and act your age, or you may end up paying a hefty price.
Hibernian’s recent research* indicates that 69% of the population still has no pension cover, despite on-going publicity around the issue. If we exclude public sector workers from this group, the figure is even higher at 75%.
In a further surprising angle to the survey 54% said they were unaware of the tax benefits of pension and or PRSA contributions.
Even though four out of five adults say they have considered the age at which they would like to retire, not many have considered how they will fund their golden years. The ideal age for retirement for almost half of those surveyed is 59. However people across all age groups admitted to feeling and acting younger than their age, which may go some way to explaining why our young at heart workforce has yet to wake up to reality.
To fund a comfortable retirement at 60 (two-thirds of pre-retirement income) a 35-year-old needs to be putting aside a minimum of 20% of their salary every month, and increasing contributions as they get older.
Martin O’Hora, head of pension development with Hibernian Life & Pensions, said: “The earlier people choose to retire the less income buying power their retirement savings have. For example, at 60 a retirement fund of €100,000 buys an annual income of €5,340 but at 70 it buys €7,480.
”While feeling younger is great for our health and overall state of well-being, the flipside of this is that we are more likely to neglect our financial responsibilities and actively put off thinking about things like saving for our future”.
Martin O’Hora, added: “The irony of our research is that 39% of people who say they have no pension also admit to worrying on a weekly basis about their financial future. This is certainly not healthy!”
The Hibernian research also revealed the heroes of this young at heart generation are Kylie Minogue and Bono. The majority of those surveyed felt that they acted younger than their years and were better role models than an Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and singer Ronan Keating, who were deemed older than their years.
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*Fieldwork for research by Hibernian Life & Pensions undertaken by Behaviour & Attitudes Ltd during May 2005.
Press contact:
Kela O’Riordan, 01 617 8164, 086 606 8842
kela.oriordan@hibernian.ie
Notes to editors:
- Hibernian is Ireland’s largest composite insurer, ranked first for general insurance and top three for life and pensions
- Hibernian is part of Aviva plc the world’s sixth largest insurance group based on gross worldwide premiums
- Aviva employs 60,000 staff globally
- Hibernian news releases are also available on www.hibernian.ie