15 million people are currently not saving enough for retirement according to the Pensions Commission. 45% of working-age adults in the UK are not saving into a pension at all, despite nearly half of them being in work, and unsurprisingly low and middle earners are most at risk.
Millions of pensioners live in poverty right now, which is worsening due to living and housing costs, and is the same reason millions of workers can’t afford to save or pay into a pension in the first place. Currently the default State Pension rises every year by CPI inflation, average earnings growth or 2.5%, whichever is highest. A full state pension is £965 every four weeks, which is hardly a living pension. No wonder the Pensions Commission warns of a cliff edge for the millions more who will face this when they retire.
Auto-enrolment means employers must place employees in a pension and contribute to their retirement funds but in reality, this adds little.
We need to fight for pensions that can be lived on comfortably and tax free, taking the profits of the companies millions work for and using the billions spent on war to help working-class people instead. A mass council house building programme would also free millions of us from insecure tenancies and rip-off rents, including pensioners, as more of us reach retirement without owning our own homes.
We can provide everyone with a decent standard of living by using the wealth and resources in society to democratically plan what we need, not what is considered ‘affordable’ to the bosses who continue to get rich at our expense.
