Pensions - Articles - Pensions Awareness Day – A good opportunity to make changes

 We hope that by and highlighting the extent of the problem, people will accept they need to save more, during their working life, to protect themselves from financial hardship and secure more financially comfortable retirement.

 Malcolm McLean, Senior Consultant at Barnett Waddingham, believes that Pensions Awareness Day is an important campaign for the industry, he said; “Having a dedicated Pension Awareness Day is a very necessary and laudable initiative, which we in the industry should all support.

 “It is also an opportunity, in my view, to examine more critically why people are not saving and what it is about our pension system that needs to change over the longer term. Especially if we are going to materially improve public awareness and lift pension saving to a much more acceptable level than seems possible at the present time.

 “In essence what we need is:
 • A much simpler pension system which is comprehensible to the average person and does not suffer from the complexities of the past
 • Better use of language and the elimination of the jargon currently attached to pension communications
 • The encouragement of greater consumer engagement with their pension plan and the possible ways it can be facilitated
 • The development of a better, more approachable image for the pension industry and the restoration of consumer confidence in it.”