Fewer that three in 10 of those workers who will be automatically enrolled in a new mandatory workplace pension scheme from next September are aware of it, according to data from the Central Statistics Office..
Auto-enrolment will apply to people between the ages of 23 and 60 who earn at least €20,000 a year and are not already part of a pension scheme through their job.
Employers and employees will both contribute 1.5 per cent of their gross earnings to it initially, with the State adding a further 0.5 per cent. The contributions of all parties will gradually increase, reaching 6 per cent and 2 per cent, respectively, by 2034.
“At an overall level, some 28 per cent of workers eligible for enrolment were aware of the Government planned scheme, up 10 percentage points on the same period in 2023,” said Maureen Delamere statistician in the social modules division of the CSO.
Of those aware, 72 per cent said they would remain the scheme once it was introduced. Workers will have the option of exiting the scheme after a set period.
The CSO data also found that over half of workers who are not signed up to a pension scheme at work said their employer does not offer any type of pension scheme, a figure that has got marginally worse over the past year.
For people who do had a pension through their employment, the number of a defined benefit arrangement - where your pension is a proportion of your salary depending on the number of years worked - continues to fall. It now accounts for just over a quarter of employees, down from 30 per cent last year.
The number with defined contributions pensions - where the pension is determined by the investment performance of contributions - increased three percentage points to 69 per cent in 2024, according to the latest numbers.
More than half – 52 per cent – of those who had no pension coverage expect the State pension to be their main source of income, the CSO said.
More than four in 10 respondents among the one-third without any supplementary pension plan said either they just never got around to organising it or that they would do so in the future. Among older people - those aged between 55 and 69, affordability was cited as a major reason.
According to the analysis, the number of people taking out supplementary pension cover increases with age, Ms Delamere said.
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