
Why is it worth saving your pension?
- July 5, 2021
Pension savings are on the rise.
The average annual pension of a worker aged between 55 and 64 is currently about £5,500, according to a new report from the ONS.
This is up by around £200 from the previous year, but the number of people aged 55 and over working full time is rising at a faster pace.
The median monthly salary for a worker who was 55 in 2017 was £3,000. That was £1,800 higher than the median salary of the previous two years, and £700 higher than it was in 2017.
Pension savings by age and gender are on average up by £300 per year.
Men are more likely to be saving their pensions, but women are saving more at a slower rate.
Men also have higher rates of total pension saving than women.
However, there are some interesting differences between the sexes.
Women tend to have lower levels of interest income and higher levels of debt, while men tend to be wealthier.
According to the latest ONS data, there were 7.5 million pensioners in the UK at the end of the financial year, while there were about 13 million pension recipients.
This was up by 7.4 million on the previous financial year.
There were 4.5 per cent more people in the workforce aged 55 to 64 in 2017 than there were in 2016.
This also represents a decline in the number in this age group in the last decade, but it is still higher than that of previous financial years.
The proportion of pensioners aged 55 or over in the labour force rose by 5.5 percentage points, from 21.3 per cent in 2016 to 22.6 per cent.
This has been partly offset by a slight increase in the proportion of workers aged 55 years and over, which rose by 2.9 percentage points.
Women have lower household incomes, lower levels and higher debt.
Households where people lived more than one home are also more likely than households where people shared the same address to have pension liabilities, according the ONSB.
These households are more prone to falling into debt, according for example to the Household Expenditure Survey.
This could also be a contributing factor to the higher rate of pension saving in the recent financial year than in previous years.
This will likely have a positive impact on people’s ability to pay off their pension in retirement.
The ONS said: The increase in pensioner pension saving reflects the ageing population.
While more people are aged 55 than 60, the average age for the first pensioner in the household to receive their first pension was 58.
In the last year, there has been a rise in the age of first pensioners to 59.
This rise is in line with the average increase in age for people to receive a first pension.
While there is an increase in average pension saving, this is not enough to offset the fall in household incomes.
Household incomes are now higher in England than in the rest of the UK, and the proportion who live in private rented accommodation has fallen by around 15 percentage points since 2015.
The share of households with no pension income is lower than it has been in years before.
But the ONSA said: It is likely that the higher average pension savings for the older age groups reflects the fact that the increase in older pensioner saving over the last financial year has not translated into higher household incomes or better household finances.