A National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) survey has found that younger UK workers born in the 1980s are more ‘switched on' to pensions and plan to save more.
Just over half of respondents (53 per cent) aged 25-34 planned to increase the amount they saved towards retirement, compared with only 26 per cent of workers aged 45-54, it found.
Those born in the 1980s were most likely to lament not saving for retirement earlier. At 47 per cent it was higher than any age group and the survey average of 42 per cent.
NAPF said it usually found increasing interest in pensions as workers aged. However half of those aged 25-34 said they had talked more about pensions in the last year than previous years.
NAPF said it thought its recent findings reflected public debate surrounding pensions, changes to the pension state age and new legislation to auto-enrol all workers in a pension.
Almost half (48 per cent) of workers aged 25-34 were already a member of a workplace pension while 65 per cent said they would likely remain in their new pension after being auto-enrolled, compared to the survey average of 60 per cent.
NAPF chief executive Joanne Segars said the results were counter-intuitive as young workers had been nicknamed the ostrich generation — aware of the need to save for retirement but reluctant to do anything about it.
"Their retirement might be decades away, but it looks like many younger people are taking their heads out of the sand when it comes to pensions," she said.
The ‘80s generation faced huge financial pressures in paying off student debt and building a deposit for a home, said Segars.
Although the survey showed an interest among younger workers in saving for retirement, it also highlighted some confidence issues in that 44 per cent of 25-34 year olds did not know whether they were in a good pension or not, while 45 per cent said they were uncomfortable with their current approach to saving for retirement.
