'Crisis' warning as 70% of self-employed are not saving into a pension

'Sleepwalking into retirement misery'

Hannah Godfrey
clock • 2 min read

Some 3.5 million self-employed workers in the UK are not saving into a private pension, according to new research from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, and so risk facing severe financial difficulties in later life.

According to the research the proportion of self-employed workers saving for retirement has declined over the last two decades, from half (48%) in 1998 to less than two-in-five (16%) in 2018.  At the same time, the number of self-employed workers has grown, by 3.8 million - nearly 13% of the workforce - to 4.8 million, or just over 15% of the workforce.  AJ Bell senior analyst Tom Selby said self-employed workers who are not saving into a pension "risk facing severe financial difficulties in later life", adding: "Make no mistake about it - without urgent action, there is a real risk m...

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