How you can help support Pensions Awareness Week

As the industry readies for Pensions Awareness Week (13-17 September), we want to tell you about the activity the PLSA has planned to promote greater saver understanding of workplace pensions and to provide you with resources to help support this initiative.

On Monday, look out for coverage in the pensions media of a national survey, commissioned by the PLSA, of more than 2,000 savers, which gauges their understanding of how their workplace pension works, how much they should aim to save and how to access their pension in later life.

The survey finds what many of us already know: that too many savers remain in the dark about the basics of pension savings. In the dark about how much they will get via the state pension, about how much they need to save, about what retirement actually costs and about what decisions they will need to make when they retire.

Based on these findings, we have targeted five basic pension facts to tell savers to raise their understanding:

1. A full state pension is worth £9,339
2. Most people are automatically enrolled in a workplace pension
3. There are tools to help you assess how much to save and how much you will need in retirement
4. You have choices to make about drawing your pension
5. Information and advice is available.

Later in the week we will also publish new practical guidance to help employers have meaningful conversations with staff about their retirement savings. The guide aims to help you – employers and schemes or all types and sizes – navigate the advice/guidance boundary and dispel myths about what you can and can’t say to help savers with regards to their workplace pension.

We ask you to look out for these materials being promoted by the PLSA on social media and to consider any ways your organisation can help support this initiative, by sharing the materials with staff, posting on social media or starting a conversation with someone about their workplace pensions.

We want to bring this important information to as large an audience as possible during Pensions Awareness Week to support our mission of helping more people achieve a better income in retirement.

Below are two examples of the infographics we'll be sharing during Pensions Awareness Week. You can download all the infographics here.