Strong opinions on Super

Government moves to gradually increase the pension age are not popular with older people in particular, new data shows.

ASB has released the results of its latest Kiwisaver survey, which showed 20 per cent of respondents strongly disagreed with the plan to raise the eligibility age to 67 by 2040. Only 11 per cent strongly agreed with the idea.

ASB senior wealth economist Chris Tennent-brown said the strongest disagreement came from older age groups, who would not be affected by the change.

Among those aged 50-59, 27 per cent said they strongly disagreed with the proposed change and only 9 per cent agreed. This age group will all receive the pension before the age changes.

But only 16 per cent of those aged under 39 strongly disagreed with the idea and 7 per cent strongly agreed.

He said he had been surprised at the strength of feeling in responses to the question – overall, 30 per cent had a strong opinion one way or the other.

Older people were probably opposed to the change because there had been a number of superannuation reforms over the past 30 years, including an increase to the retirement age, the development of the NZ Super Fund and then Kiwisaver.

‘‘They’re not liking all the changes. But for younger groups it’s such a long time away, they may think it will change between now and then and it’s not at the front of their minds.

‘‘There also seems to be a large group of people who are sitting on the fence, 28 per cent.’’

Those who will turn 65 after the pension age has lifted to 67 will need to save an extra $50,000 if they still want to retire at 65.