PLSA welcomes flexible savings pilots for self-employed workers

The Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) comments on pilots to test new forms of flexible saving for the self-employed.

Nigel Peaple, Director of Policy and Advocacy, PLSA, said: “Extra prompts and nudges to encourage self-employed people to consider enrolling in a private pension is a very simple idea but, if the trial is successful, has the potential to transform pension provision for the nearly five million self-employed people in the UK.

“This cohort of people, which includes everyone from consultants and freelancers to delivery drivers, farmers and tradespeople; do not currently fall within the scope of automatic enrolment (AE) and only a minority are saving into a private pension by themselves.

“Every little effort to encourage pension participation among the self-employed is an effort worth making as many recognise they need to take action to sort out their pension but put it off or don’t know where to start.

“Some existing measures to help increase general awareness of pension saving can also help the self-employed; for example, the PLSA’s Retirement Living Standards and the Government’s Moneyhelper website.

“In addition, it is expected that the first Pensions Dashboards will help the self-employed see how much state pension and private pension they can expect to have and this may encourage them to save more.”

Mark Smith, Senior PR Manager
020 7601 1726 | [email protected]

Steven Kennedy, Senior PR Manager
020 7601 1737 | 07713 073024 | [email protected]