South: Sanlam warns that over-60s are unprepared for retirement

Which Way Forward?, a new white paper published by financial group Sanlam, reports that an alarming number of workers over 60 in the South East are unprepared for their retirement. The report suggests that an increasing ageing population, the demise of generous final-salary schemes and the pension freedoms introduced last April are all contributing to a radically-shifting retirement landscape in which a third of respondents feel unprepared for their future.

28% say they are not aware of the new pension freedoms which the Government introduced in April 2015; and 36% admit that they are unaware of how much they currently have in their pension pot.  

This is at a time when future retirees envisage a longer working life than previous generations with less than 2% of pre-retirees anticipating retirement before the age of 61 and around 34% expecting to still be working at 70 and beyond.

The report suggests that fixed-age retirement has already become an outdated concept and will no longer be possible for the majority of the current working generation. Three in 10 pre-retirees in the South East now envisage partial retirement which is phased in over a few years.

Commenting on the findings, David Dunn, pensions specialist and author of  Which Way Forward? , said: “Following the Government’s new pension freedoms introduced in April, people now have more choice as to how they use their pension pots. Although this gives people more flexibility to organise their finances, it also brings extra responsibility when making such important decisions. 

Nick Parry, head of proposition at Sanlam UK, said: “The research shows that the era of annuities and traditional pension planning is over.”