Watch: How do we stop a generation from sleepwalking into retirement?
On 2nd March
Prospect welcomed a stellar panel of speakers to discuss the future of savings and pensions in the UK. Bringing together experts from industry and parliament, we asked how can people save enough for their future during a time of uncertainty and what can be done by pensions providers and government to help people make the best possible choices for their retirement planning.
Five years on from the introduction of Pension Freedoms, new research by The People’s Pension and State Street Global Advisors has shown that mature savers are sleepwalking into retirement. They risk running out of Defined Contribution pension savings and, with a third of their retirement still to come, could spend their later years reliant on the state pension.
You don t pay tax at sea and it helped me save
Credit: Asadour Guzelian
He spent years working on ships at sea. Now Shaun Beal, 61, from Doncaster, wants to retire and spend £100,000 of his hard-earned savings to buy a luxury car and tour around Europe with his wife.
The Merchant Navy sailor has amassed more than £1.4m in medium-risk pension savings, as well around £550,000 in other investments and cash savings stored away in Isas, investment and savings accounts and Premium Bonds.
He claimed generous 100pc “Seafarers Earnings” tax deductions on the money he made outside British waters. “It’s why I have been able to build up so much over the years,” he said. “I’m aiming for an income of around £50,000 a year so I only pay the 20pc tax rate and there is some money left over for my two grown-up children – but I don’t know the best way to go about drawing an income and how to keep my tax bill low.”