Majority of people have scant knowledge of pensions

Research published today by the Department for Work and Pensions suggests that around half the population has little or no knowledge of pension provision.

The research looked at private pension provision among people of working age in Britain and collected information on people's attitudes towards pensions and saving for retirement.

The data is based on analyses of a module of questions placed on the National Statistics Omnibus in March 2002. In total, around 1,200 adults of working age were interviewed as part of the survey.

Almost half (46%) of those surveyed reported that their knowledge of pensions issues was patchy or amounted to 'little/nothing' – and few people of working age (13%) thought that theirs was good.

The research found that almost seven out of ten people of working age have had a private pension at some point in their working lives – although only half currently held one at the time of the survey (in March 2002).

Ownership of private pensions varied across the population, with age, income and employment status being particularly important. Groups less likely to have a private pension included the self-employed (half of whom had a private pension compared with two thirds of employees) and part time workers (four in 10 of whom had a private pension).

Sixty one per cent of people had heard of Stakeholder pensions at the time of the survey in March 2002 – which was up on the 25% who had heard of them in a similar survey two years earlier. However, of those who had heard of Stakeholder pensions, around half had heard of the name only.

(GMcG)