'Midlife pensions crisis' highlights need for advice

Only one in 10 said their retirement planning would allow them to be comfortable in retirement and just 13% of over-40s said they were looking forward to retirement.
 
31% wish they had started sorting out their retirement plans sooner, 18% saying that they find pension planning confusing and 10% dreading making irreversible choices around retirement.

Financial stability was also a concern with 26% suggesting they would need to keep working for as long as possible as they needed the money and 18% admitting that they would need to ‘make some tough decisions at retirement’.
 
However by their early 50s, 25% believe they will be comfortable in retirement, and they are significantly less likely to dread making retirement choices (4%).

Yet even by their early sixties, less than half (43%) believe they will be comfortable in retirement, which Just Retirement has cited as "hugely concerning".

Stephen Lowe, group communications director at Just Retirement, said: “When people reach their 40th birthday, the idea that they will eventually retire really hits home and the challenge of retirement planning means that they can suffer a ‘midlife pensions crisis’. This appears to be characterised by confusion, lack of confidence in their retirement provision and concerns about what might happen.
 
“However – as with the more traditional midlife crisis – as they age and start to take positive steps to meet these challenges, they start to worry less about their retirement until by their early sixties almost a third are looking forward to this new stage in life.
 
“There is currently a debate around when people should have access to the government’s guaranteed guidance service – Pension Wise. Fifty is an age that is being proposed but this research suggests that some people may value having access to this guidance at even earlier.”