Why Pension Engagement Season really matters

Pension Engagement Season is needed more than ever, as our 20th Retirement Report shows 

Pension Engagement Season (PES) is almost upon us – and what a brilliant opportunity it offers to engage with millions of people who save into their workplace pensions. 

We’re gearing up for what’s bound to be another great PES, reaching even more of our pension scheme members and employer sponsors than ever before to encourage them to pay their pension some attention, find out what they’ve got, what they’ll need – and what they can do to improve their retirement.

PES is more important than ever because too many people’s retirement prospects are not in the shape they need to be, as Scottish Widows’ 2024 Retirement Report recently highlighted.

More than a third (38%) of people are on a track for retirement where they’ll only be able to afford the basics. That’s slightly worse than last year as people continue to face cost-of-living challenges, and pension engagement remains low. Just over a third of people (34%) say they’re preparing adequately for retirement*.

The report, our 20th, is a major part of our work to understand the nation’s retirement prospects, which groups are saving well, and which ones are struggling. We know that women, and those with disabilities, for example, are lagging on the saving front but they’re not the only ones. 

20 years of change 

Pensions have changed massively over the two decades we’ve been questioning thousands of people (around 6,000 for the 2024 Retirement Report) about their pensions and how optimistic they feel about their future.  The most optimistic group are those already retired!

Many of those retired will have Defined Benefit (DB) schemes but over the last 20 years Defined Contribution (DC) pensions have largely replaced DB ones, auto enrolment (AE) got people saving into workplace schemes, and pension freedoms have revolutionised how people take their benefits.

While the good news is there’s around £650bn invested in workplace DC pensions in the UK, there is still a long way to go to get the country on track. 

Pension Engagement Season matters 

So, it’s timely that the annual, industry-wide Pension Engagement Season (PES) is here again from 9 September, campaigning for everyone to ‘Pay Your Pension Some Attention’. 

Pension Engagement Season spun out of Pension Awareness Day, which started out as one day, then it grew arms and legs – and wheels – into a week-long bus tour of the country to grab people’s attention. We still get nostalgic about hopping on board the pensions bus before we got our own supersized pension juggernaut vehicle to tour employer sites.

Yes, these things grabbed headlines at the time, and it was brilliant to meet people we could help to understand a bit more about pensions, and sometimes find lost ones that they didn’t even know they had.

But times have changed, the campaign has got bigger, extending all the way to National Pension Tracing Day in October and beyond.

We’re working with hundreds of employers as we seek to reach more people in new and innovative ways, using our pension app, Tik Tok, social media influencers, with employer webinars tailored to people’s level of knowledge, answering their questions and much more besides. 

This year we’ll be refreshing our award-winning, AI-powered Pension Mirror to get people engaged with their pension in a simple, fun way. The mirror and the pension app demonstrate how customers can boost their pension savings, with a built-in share function to their social network.

If it’s anything like as successful as it was in 2023 when it was used hundreds of thousands of times by people to take a ‘selfie’ and compare their pension savings to their peers, it’ll be a job well done. 

Helping people to know what they’ve got, understand how much they might need for retirement and what steps they can take to grow their pension, is what it’s all about. 

And if we can do that across the industry, with providers, consultants, employers and government all pulling together, we can tackle the pension adequacy challenge, get people using their pension app and engaging with their savings – not just for a few weeks, but all year round – future Scottish Widows’ Retirement Reports will start to show a more optimistic picture. 

That’ll really be something to look forward to.

So, I hope you’re gearing up for PES with as much enthusiasm as we are – what are you doing to make a difference, and can we help you? 

*Scottish Widows Retirement Report, 2024