Pensions Coverage

Don't you think figures bandied around giving pensions coverage of 51 to 52% of population is misleading?

Say I take out a PRSA with One Direct at EUR25 a month. Does this boost the 52% figure? Yes it could be argued that I have a pension but at EUR25 a month I'll still be a burden on the state. If it is included in the 52% then which department is trying to justify their existence?

Does anyone know how this 52% figure was arrived at? What percentage of the population have adequate provision made as a opposed to holding some sort of a pension plan?

Sumatra said:

Does anyone know how this 52% figure was arrived at?

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What 52% figure? Can you give a reference to where you saw this mentioned?

Ref:

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Do you mean this bit

[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] About half of the workforce has pension cover in addition to their social welfare entitlement. A survey carried out for the Pensions Board by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) in 2002 revealed that only 1 in 2 workers (50.7%) have private pension cover. That includes 35% in company pension schemes and 12.1% with personal pensions. About 3% have both a company pension and a personal top-up.

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If so then it doesn't seem to take account of how much qualifying individuals contribute (in absolute terms or as a percentage of income) but reference to the CSO study mentioned might clarify the details?
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http://www.mercerhr.co.uk/pressrelease/details.jhtml/dynamic/idContent/1176540

Goes through average contributions - around 10% - 5.9% employer 4.1% employee. They've a slightly odd view for low paid workers - they say this level of contribution is sufficient since for the lower paid the state pension will make up a higher portion of their overall pension.

Also there's a section of the population who're not contributing to any pension plan who'll be fine. Anyone dodging tax (e.g. people who insist in being paid in cash) will see no reason to put money into a standard pension scheme.
Property investment is their preferred scheme, as it is of tax compliant workers who either don't believe in using pension funds or like a backup plan of which they've some more control.

Also, the 52% includes the public sector which has extremely high pension coverage. If you remove the publin sector from the equation pension coverage for the private sector plummets.

Bub.

Couldn't find the answer. Anyone know what percentage of the working population has or is making adequate pension provision?

Sumatra said:

Don't you think figures bandied around giving pensions coverage of 51 to 52% of population is misleading?

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It's only misleading if it is 'spun' to imply that 50% have adequete pensions. Come to think of it, how would you define 'adequete'?

That's the point Rainyday. I suppose an accurate definition of adequete coverage would be a person in retirement who isn't a burden on the state.

However, an individual might feel they have adequete pension provision if they can achieve their lifestyle goals.

Indeed, there are many that don't use pension schemes to provide for income in retirement e.g. (A) Inheritance (B) Property (C) Sale of Business. With that I don't think its possible to put a figure on what percentage of people are adequately covered.

Would love to see a survey though of people though with the question "Do you think you will be adequately covered for income in retirement?". My gut feeling is that the "dont knows" and "probably nots" would be extremely high.