Employees want new and easier ways to manage multiple pension pots, research by Aviva has found.
The poll of 2,000 employees in the UK found that while almost half (49%) had multiple pots, 58% were unclear of the overall value of their pension savings.
However, three-quarters (75%) felt they would not have enough to live comfortably in retirement.
The survey also found that 67% of respondents said it was important or very important to see all their pension savings in one place, 64% were in favour of consolidating their various pots into one ‘big fat pot’, and of those, 96% said that they would be much more likely to do this if there was a simple system in place to do it.
According to Aviva, the research suggests that employees’ lack of clarity on their pension savings makes it harder to assess whether they are putting enough savings aside for their retirement: over one-third (34%) said they were concerned about how they would manage their separate pots across their careers.
Just over half (57%) had a workplace pension, in line with the UK average, with 43% having between two and four small pension pots and 6% having five or more. On average, employees tended to stay with an employer for four and a half years.
Paul Goodwin, director of workplace savings at Aviva, said: “What’s clear from this research is that many workers in the UK are saying they want to be able to easily manage their retirement savings and to see the value of their total pension pot in one place.
“There is a constant drumbeat about people not saving for retirement, which is valid.
“However, when you cannot track your savings in a simple way, it’s very hard to know how much more you actually need for your retirement.
“With auto-enrolment being introduced from next year we have even more opportunity to encourage employees to actively save into a pension. However, we also need to recognise that those employees benefiting most from auto-enrolment, largely those on lower salaries, may also be left with a number of small pots.
“A simple solution for those in auto-enrolled schemes would be to allow automatic transfers between similar auto-enrolled schemes so that an employee’s pension follows them as they move jobs.”
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