What drives how much workers are saving in their pensions?

Different levels of pensions saving are appropriate for different types of people, depending on their needs in retirement and their current circumstances. In this event we examined what drives differences in how much people save in their pensions, particularly in terms of their age, earnings, and tax incentives. We also discussed important differences in how these factors affect employees and the self-employed, and the drivers behind the gender gap in pension saving.

Specifically, at this event, we launched new research, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, with short presentations on the following questions:

• How does pension saving respond to changes in earnings, tax incentives and life events such as having children and moving into home ownership?
• What could explain the large fall in the number of self-employed people saving for a pension since the early 2000s and how do self-employed people choose their contribution amounts?
• What are the different gender pension gaps and why are there such large differences between the amounts that working-age men and women contribute to their pensions?

In each case we also discussed the potential implications for public policy that can be drawn from our findings.

The speakers included:

• Jonathan Cribb, Associate Director, Head of Retirement, Savings, and Ageing, IFS
• Heidi Karjalainen, Research Economist, IFS
• Laurence O’Brien, Research Economist, IFS
• Tom Josephs, Private Pensions and Arm’s-Length Bodies Partnership, DWP