Imagine your retirement and help teach the value of saving for future
A CAMPAIGN will be launched next month to highlight the benefits of new rules that will require most workers to be automatically enrolled into a pension scheme.
From October, when pension auto-enrolment begins to be introduced, and 2018, when all employers will be required to enrol their workers into a works pension, about eight million employees will be saving into a pension for the first time.
They will be given tax breaks to encourage them not to opt out and from October 2018 they will pay at least four per cent of salary into the pension, while employers will contribute three per cent and the Government one per cent.
Next month’s campaign, which will encourage consumers to come up with ideas for advertisements that link the lifestyle they have now to the one they may want when they retire, is the idea of Nest – the National Employment Savings Trust.
This State-backed pension funds provider is expected to be the first choice of many businesses, especially smaller ones.
Tim Jones, chief executive of Nest, says: ‘Automatic enrolment will hopefully start a savings revolution, however we need to encourage people to understand the value of saving for the future.
‘The best way is by focusing on the things many people enjoy doing today – such as going to the cinema or shopping – and suggesting that they may still want to do that later in life.
‘By highlighting the fact that if they put money aside they will still be able to enjoy the good things later on, we might be able to convince most people that saving in a pension is a good idea.’
Although the new pension rules are imminent, ignorance is still widespread.
According to consultant RMS Tenon, nearly a quarter of employers are unaware that they will have to enrol their workers into a workplace scheme.
Last week, Nest produced a ‘golden rules of communication’ guide for employers to help businesses understand the value of the new pension rules.
If you have an idea for an advertisement on the virtues of saving for tomorrow, email it to jeff.prestridge@mailonsunday.co.uk. We will submit it to Nest, which may use it in campaigns.