Ireland. Fix pensions now or risk future misery for a million workers who aren’t saving
Frustration is growing over the glacial pace at which successive governments have approached our deepening pensions crisis. CSO figures published last week show two-thirds of workers aged 20 to 69 have employment-based or personal pension savings to supplement the state pension.
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That might seem reassuring, but once you exclude the public sector, there are around a million private sector workers with no supplementary pension savings at all.
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The seriousness of the situation cannot be understated. Immediate action is required to prevent pensioner poverty for a large section of our society. The well-documented problems with the Irish pension system are threefold.
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Firstly, the long-term sustainability of the current state pension is in severe doubt, as highlighted by the Pension Commission’s report last year.
Secondly, CSO figures show the number of private sector workers saving into supplementary pension arrangements remains stubbornly low.
Thirdly, there are concerns that existing pension savers are not saving enough to provide an adequate retirement income, a problem which could be exacerbated by increasing living costs.
Read more @Independent.ie
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