Many adults may be overestimating what they will receive in retirement, a study has found.
Insurance company Aviva polled 2,030 people and found 25% are relying on discounts and subsidies to make their retirement more affordable.
Furthermore, 23% said they had a good idea of the perks available to them, such as rail travel and spectacles. However, many were unaware those specific incentives were only discounted.
42% were aware of a discount available on council tax, while a further 15% incorrectly thought they won’t have to pay council tax when they retire.
Only adults aged over 65 and receiving pension credit are eligible for discount on council tax.
Other products adults expected to receive for free in retirement include:
- social care (15%)
- broadband (11%)
- water rates (9%)
- pet insurance (8%)
- package holidays (7%).
25% of adults in retirement said they currently struggle to live off their pension, despite the discounts and subsidies available to them.
Quote from Nigel Holland:
“It is important that before a consumer decides to retire they educate themselves on what discounts and subsidies they can receive in order to determine whether they can easily survive retirement financially. This will allow them to see if they will be better off staying in employment were they can continue to increase their pension and thus make their future years of retirement worth its while.
The impact early retirement would have on the economy would include an increase in spending on pensions as well as the major factor that those out of work pay less income taxes. This demonstrates an incentive for society to not work, providing the government and essentially the economy with a cause for concern. The reason being is that potentially inflation could arise and therefore firms will be forced to come up with strategies in order to persuade society to work such as increasing wages.
Fortunately, the state pension age increase has allowed early pension to slow down as demonstrated by the rise in the silver self employed.”