The nation is continuing to become less prepared for retirement. Costs are increasing and a ‘comfortable retirement’ is no longer a given.

Frontier Economics has supported Scottish Widows with creating their 20th annual Retirement Report. This landmark report reflects on the reforms that have been made in the UK pensions landscape over the last 20 year, such as progress closing the gender pensions gap, and the impact of giving people more freedom in how they use their pension.

However, there is a growing polarisation between those who are enjoying retirement today and those who may not enjoy retirement to the same extent in the future. Our National Retirement Forecast shows that now 38% of people are at risk of facing poverty in retirement.

Unless further reform happens, this risk is only going to grow for future retirees. The Government’s upcoming Pension Scheme bill will make some progress, but more needs to be done.

Currently automatic enrolment means that most workers save eight percent of the salary into their pension by default, but this isn’t enough to set most people up for a comfortable retirement. Scottish Widows is calling for an expansion of automatic enrolment, with the default saving rate increased to 12%, and including more people, such as lower earners and the self-employed.

Read Scottish Widow’s 2024 Retirement Report, including their other policy recommendations, such as setting up a Lifetime Savings Commission.