Halloween howlers: 7 ways to make pensions less ‘scary’

Help members make the most of their pension with some guidance this Halloween.

How can we increase pension engagement so that more people have the chance to save enough for at least a comfortable retirement. We know from our 2024 Retirement Report that just over a third of people (38%) are on track for pension savings which won’t even cover basic living costs.

There are things that people can do to change that and it’s why we’ve been right behind Pension Engagement Season (PES) since it began. This year it started in early September and goes all the way through to National Pension Tracing Day over the Halloween weekend, and beyond.

More than 60,000 pension members have joined our Retirewell online webinars and employer presentations so far this year to get guidance to manage their pensions. Then there’s this year’s Pension Mirror which has been used over 103,000 times and counting…

Meanwhile, with a little bit of Halloween inspiration, here are 7 ways members can make the most of their pension savings – and there’s no need to find it scary.

1. Get to know that pension: ‘Know it and grow it’ is our message for this year’s Pension Engagement Season. Don’t leave it in the dark! Encourage employees to join webinars, ask the AI virtual assistant on our PES hub, or find out more information on our Retire Well hub. At the very least, reading those pension statements is a start.
2. Don’t float towards your retirement – get ‘appy’: Downloading a pension app and getting to know what’s in those pension savings on a regular basis increases engagement. We can see how members who use our pension app get more engaged, and the app can steer them to take next best actions.
3. They’re not alone thanks to employer contributions: Employees who don’t save are effectively leaving ‘free’ money on the table. Make them aware of this (and how much it’s worth), what any employer matching contributions are, and how pensions are a tax-efficient way to save. If it’s salary sacrifice, explain what that means and how it works. It’s a valuable benefit – so make sure they know; it’s a ‘stake’ in their future.
4. Look after the living: Pensions can normally be passed on should someone pass away but many people don’t register or update their pension beneficiaries. It’s so important after major life events such as marriage, divorce, or the birth of a child, and not doing it can lead to family disputes or complications. It’s easy to update beneficiaries on a pension app, online or by contacting the pension provider.
   
   An employer’s death in service benefit would need its own nomination form too.
5. Don’t let your pension pot become a zombie: With people joining different employers throughout their career, they can end up with a confusing number of pension pots due to auto-enrolment. It used to be said that people had 11 jobs on average throughout their lives, but some estimates now put that at 14.
   
   Multiple pension pots are harder to manage, can lead to higher fees and make it really difficult for people to understand how much they’ve saved overall.
   
   Consolidating them can simplify management and reduce costs, if it’s right for them.
   
   It’s all too easy to lose track of a pension, too. National Pension Tracing Day is the industry-wide campaign to reunite people with an estimated £31.1 bn in lost pensions, worth an average of £9,500 each. That’s a spine-tingling amount and finding a lost pension could make a big difference.
   
   Pension dashboards are on the way and will pull multiple pensions into a dashboard so that people can see what they’ve got, and they can then decide what to do. We’re already seeing that demand in the Moneyhub feature in our app, with members able to view all their finances and link pensions from other providers thanks to our in-app experience.
6. (Ghost)bust the pension savings gap: Retirement Living Standards show how much people will need to live on, on average. How much? It’s £14,400, and £22,400 for a couple. With longer life expectancy nowadays, that can make it trickier to work out – and not everyone can pay for financial advice.
   
   The Scottish Widows app has pension planning tools and a calculator to help people work that out.
7. The State Pension is your Patronus to thwart the retirement Dementor: Borrowing the theme from Harry Potter, the State Pension is a valuable part of most people’s income in retirement. Yet many people don’t know when they are eligible (it’s 67 and due to rise to 68), how much they’re likely to get, if they’ve paid enough in NI contributions to qualify, and how they can top it up if they’ve missed years. Gov.uk has useful information.

With all the support and guidance available, members don’t need to feel startled by their pension. Find out more about Retirewell support and the webinars calendar (PDF, 331KB) and the PES hub.