Ireland. Pensions gap widens as pandemic deepens the divide

Psychologists say we have very little appreciation or concept of ourselves in the future.

In other words, our future selves are strangers to each of us.

This lack of relationship with our older selves partly explains why we are so bad at planning for the longer term, such as saving towards retirement.

According to research published in recent weeks by Standard Life, just under half of people of working age here have an occupational pension here.

That’s down from just over half at the end of last year.

It suggests that as more workers move into retirement, fewer younger people of working age are entering into pension schemes.

And indeed, that is borne out by findings from the CSO last year that as few as one in four 20 to 24 years olds were contributing to a pension scheme.

That’s a problem for society and suggests that increasing numbers of us will be reliant on the state pension in retirement and will simply be unable to maintain lifestyles that we’ve become accustomed to during our working lives.

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