More of us are saving in a workplace pension than ever before. But will the future we want be the future we are able to get? The Retirement Living Standards have been developed to help us to picture what kind of lifestyle we could have in retirement.
Research shows 51% of people focus on their current needs and wants at the expense of providing for the future and only 23% of people are confident they know how much they need to save. The Standards aim to help savers overcome this challenge and give them more confidence about their retirement saving.
Pitched at three levels: minimum, moderate and comfortable, they have been designed as a practical and meaningful way for savers to understand retirement saving. Like the 5-a-day healthy eating initiative, the PLSA’s ambition is for the Retirement Living Standards to become a widely adopted industry standard, with schemes using them in general information for their members, in annual benefit statements, or to develop personalised targets for their members’ pension planning.
The standards are an important part of the PLSA's objective of improving pensions adequacy.
Key points
- Research shows 51% of people focus on their current needs and wants at the expense of providing for the future and only 23% of people are confident they know how much they need to save. The Standards aim to help savers overcome this challenge and give them more confidence about their retirement saving.
- The Standards are based on independent research with real people, and were developed in partnership with Loughborough University Research faculty.
- They describe three different standards of living with a basket of goods and associated costs for each, made up of household bills, food and drink, transport, holidays and leisure, clothing and personal care, and helping others.
- The PLSA wants to see schemes representing 90% of active savers adopt the standards by 2025.