Event

Pension shock: The looming social and political crisis for Gen X

This event hosted by UK think tank the Social Market Foundation will discuss the gap between people’s expectations of their retirement and reality.

This Social Market Foundation panel event will launch new research on the looming ‘pension shock’ that those in their 40s and 50s are likely to face upon discovering the inadequacy of their pension pots. This project is kindly sponsored by the Standard Life Centre for the Future of Retirement.

Most people don’t consider their pension until their 50s. The SMF therefore expects pensions to rise in voters’ concerns over the next five years as individuals born in the 1970s discover for the first time that, despite working longer than their parents, and often making more money than their parents, they are in for a substantially worse retirement.

Their pension pot will fail to meet many of their retirement expectations, becoming a critical political issue as immigration or the cost-of-living have in recent years.

Gen X is the first generation to rely substantially on the outcome of DC schemes, which are less generous than the DB pensions on which Baby Boomers largely relied. Gen X also lack the housing and savings wealth of Baby Boomers and, while they are wealthier than younger generations, many started work before the full introduction of auto-enrolment in 2015 and consequently they have put less into their pensions than Gen Z.

Informed by the SMF’s research findings, the panel will discuss the gap between people’s expectations of their retirement and reality, and how does it vary across demographics, its potential influence on spending and saving patterns among Gen X, and its likely political consequences.

Speakers

Theo Bertram – Director, SMF (Chair)

Gideon Salutin – Senior Researcher, SMF

Catherine Foot – Director of the Standard Life Centre for the Future of Retirement.

Zoe Alexander – Executive Director of Policy and Advocacy, Pensions UK.