More than two-thirds of workers have some form of pension coverage outside of the State pension, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) has said.

Of the 68% of workers aged 20-69 with additional pension coverage, 70% have an occupational pension, 10% have a personal pension and 20% have both, including 22% of men and 19% of women.

For employees with occupational pensions from their current employment, the number with ‘defined benefit’ pensions decreased in 2023 from 32% to 30% while the number with ‘defined contribution’ pensions rose from 62% to 66%. The remaining 4% have hybrid plans.

Supplementary pension coverage levels were similar among men (68%) and women (67%) and largely stable year-on-year. The proportion of men with a pension was unchanged from 2022, and the portion of women who have a pension rose two percentage points last year.

Those in employment aged between 45 and 54 have the highest level of pension coverage at more than three-quarters (77%) while only a third (33%) of workers aged 20-24 have some form of pension.

Pension coverage among part-time workers increased four points to 47% while 72% of those in full-time work have a pension.

Out of the nearly one third of workers without a supplementary pension, 59% expect to rely on the State pension in retirement, up two percentage points from last year, while 17% are unsure what they will do for money.

The level of pension coverage was considerably higher among public workers (97%) than employees in the private sector, and more than eight in 10 (83%) professionals have pension cover compared to less than half (48%) of skilled trade workers.

Across the other broad occupational groups, coverage was highest among managers, directors and senior officials (77%), associate professionals and technical (75%), administrative and secretarial (66%), sales and customer services (58%) and process, plant and machine operatives (54%).

Conversely, pension coverage was lowest in caring, leisure and other services (44%) and elementary (40%) roles.

In terms of the main reasons given for not taking out a supplementary pension, 43% said they cannot afford one and a further 43% said they never got to organise it or will do at a future date.

Over half of employees (52%) without an occupational pension said that their employer did not offer a pension scheme, unchanged from when the survey was last carried out in 2022.

Almost a quarter of employees (24%) had chosen not to join their employer’s pension scheme, and a further one in six (16%) employees without an occupational pension were not eligible to join their employer’s occupational pension scheme.

Of those in part-time employment who do not have occupational pension coverage from their current job, six in ten (60%) stated that their employer does not offer a pension scheme, up three percentage points on the same period in 2022, compared with 48% of their full-time equivalents.

Only a fifth (20%) of respondents who are eligible for the auto-enrolment scheme are aware of it, and it is popular, with 72% of those who are aware saying they would stay in the scheme if automatically enrolled to it, up seven points from 2022.

Similarly, 19% of respondents said they had been contributing to their occupational pension scheme in their current job for 20 years or more while less than two-fifths (39%) have been making payments for less than five years.

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