The University of Lincoln provides lunch-and-learn financial education workshops to help staff broaden their financial knowledge and understand the importance of saving for retirement.
The workshops are targeted at three age groups, for employees in their early, mid and late careers. All have the same themes, such as managing finances, setting career and financial goals, and understanding financial terminology.
For the early career group, loosely aimed at those up to the age of 35, information is focused on topics such as student debt, credit scores or getting a mortgage, while also helping employees to understand the importance of belonging to a pension scheme as early in their career as possible.
Natasha Halsall, pensions and benefits adviser, says the workshops also highlight the benefits the university already provides, such as using a salary sacrifice arrangement to invest into an individual savings account (Isa) or additional voluntary contributions (AVCs), and to show the total value of the benefits over a year.
The mid-career group covers the 35-to-55 age bracket and looks at savings and tax in more depth. For those aged 55 and above, the university offers detailed sessions on planning for retirement, which employees’ partners can also attend.
Halsall says: “This is around helping people understand when they can retire because, with the removal of the default retirement age, some people are less clear about when they will finish, or how they can afford to retire.”