It's that time of year, well, arguably it's always that time of year. The point where the media is full of stories about the lack of pensions coverage. The Irish Times leads with the headline: Just one in three young people have some form of pension coverage.
But where is the surprise in this?
Just one in three workers aged 20-24 years have some form of pension coverage, according to data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
The data, which was compiled in the third quarter of last year, shows pension coverage remains greatest among workers aged 45 to 54 years (77 per cent), which was unchanged from 2022.
It remained lowest among young workers with 33 per cent of workers aged 20-24 years having some form of pension coverage, although this was up two percentage points on the same period in 2022.
For employees with occupational pensions from their current employment, the number with defined benefit pensions decreased in 2023 (30 per cent compared with 32 per cent in 2022).
But why don't people have pension coverage? Again, the answers are pretty much obvious:
For those workers with no occupational pension coverage from their current employment, half of workers stated that their employer does not offer a pension scheme.
Of employees with no supplementary pension cover, over four in ten (43 per cent) cited affordability as the main reason, which was an increase of three percentage points on the same period in 2022.
And note:
The State pension was cited as the expected main source of income on retirement for almost six in ten (59 per cent) workers with no pension coverage (up two percentage points on 2022).
How could it be otherwise? Most of us don't have private pensions, or the income to sustain a private pension, which leaves most having to depend on the state pension.
And who has got pensions?
Analysis of pension coverage by broad occupational groups shows that workers whose occupation was classified as professionals had the highest pension coverage rate at 83 per cent.
Just 48 per cent of workers whose broad occupational group was "skilled trades" had pension coverage. The lowest coverage was in the accommodation and food service activities sector (32 per cent).
A quarter of managers, directors and senior officials with pension cover had both occupational and personal pension schemes, compared with only less than one in eight (13 per cent) of workers with pension coverage in the process, plant and machine operatives and caring, leisure and other services broad occupational groups.
Again, no surprises in this at all.
No comments:
Post a Comment