Consumers not checking pensions

• Significant proportions of those saving into a pension have not checked its value or if their money would be protected by FSCS if something were to happen to the pension provider
• Consumers can quickly and easily check pension protection with a tool on the FSCS website

Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) today publishes new research, which was commissioned to discover people’s attitude towards the safety of their pension.

The data suggests that one in seven people (12%) “don’t know” when they last checked the balance of their pension pot, with a further 20% admitting to having never checked the value of their pension.

On top of this, the findings highlight that 40% of those saving into a pension have not checked if their pension is FSCS protected. 

A common reason why people hadn’t checked if their pension is FSCS protected is because they said they didn’t have time or didn’t know how to.

FSCS is releasing these findings to highlight its quick and easy pension protection checker tool. By answering a few simple questions, consumers can find out how much protection FSCS may offer on their pension.

FSCS also supplies a list of key questions to ask your pension provider, to make sure your money is protected, which can be found here.

Caroline Rainbird, Chief Executive of FSCS, said:

“The face of retirement has changed, and it never looks the same for any two people, but the importance and value of a pension remains the same. Those funds, which we build up over a long period of time, enable us to enjoy an important period of our lives – whether they are used to fund travel plans or hobbies, or provide for our families.

“While we don’t need to be checking our pension pots as often as our day-to-day accounts, it is important for people to know how much is in them, so they are aware whether they are on track to be able to afford their retirement dreams. When they are checking their current pension savings or thinking about making a change to their investments, it is also important to know their money is protected if something went wrong, for reassurance and peace of mind. That is why we’ve developed our pension protection checker – to make it quick and easy for people to check.”

For more information on the checker, visit: www.fscs.org.uk/pension-protection-checker/

 

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