According to recent figures, 43% of self-employed people in the UK do not have a private pension compared to just 4% of those in employment. The report, by Prudential, also found that of the 4.8million people working for themselves, nearly a third plan to rely solely on the state pension with a fifth thinking saving for a pension does not apply to them.
“Although very worrying, the latest statistics are not surprising – and the government should take some blame for this. The auto-enrolment scheme has been hugely successful in encouraging the majority of workers to pay into a workplace pension, but unfortunately the self-employed are excluded from this.
“One solution to increase the number of freelancers saving could be to offer further tax breaks when investing into a personal retirement plan to balance out the current inequalities. Education is also key. Start teaching people about their pension at school so everyone – whether they end up self-employed, running their own company or in the mainstream workforce – knows they can’t rely on the state and what they need to do to fund a comfortable retirement.”
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