Pension coverage: Pension coverage has only increased slightly over the past two years, despite intensive efforts to alert the public to the need for long-term savings.
New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that 52.4 per cent of people aged between 20 and 69 now have pension coverage compared to 51.2 per cent two years ago.
The figures, which were compiled as part of the quarterly national household survey in the first quarter of this year, show that pension provision actually fell among the self-employed and younger people.
The figures relate to the first quarter of this year and are compared with those from the previous survey taken for the same period of 2002. They relate to private and occupational pensions and not to the State pension.
The small increase in the overall total is due to a rise in cover for employees, with 54.4 per cent having coverage this year, compared to 52.8 per cent two years ago. In contrast, cover for the self-employed slipped to 43.1 per cent from 44.1 per cent.
As in the 2002 figures, younger workers tend to have less cover than their older counterparts. The coverage rate for workers aged 20-24 has fallen back from 25.2 per cent to 23.2 per cent, while cover remains highest for workers aged 35 to 44, up to 62.2 per cent this year from 60.4 per cent in 2002.
The CSO said it was confident of the overall figures, but that the introduction of the new Personal Retirement Savings Accounts (PRSAs) appears to have confused people in answering questions about what kind of pension they have.
For this reason the CSO cautioned that the breakdown of the data may not give a completely accurate picture, particularly a more than doubling of the percentage of employees reporting both occupation and personal pension cover from 3.6 per cent to 7.7 per cent.
Figures compiled by the Pensions Board show that just 33,000 PRSAs had been sold up to June, while 765,000 people were in occupational pension schemes, up 40,000 on the end of last year.
Ms Anne Maher, chief executive of the Pensions Board, welcomed the increase in total pension coverage, but said much more clearly remained to be done.
The figures showed that among the 30- to 69-year-old age group coverage increased from 57.4 per cent to 59.1 per cent. The target of the National Pensions Strategy is to have 70 per cent population coverage in this age group.
This is to be reviewed in 2006, and the board says that, if sufficient progress is not made, consideration should be given to introducing mandatory pension options.
While no precise figures are available for the public sector, the CSO data suggests that 90 per cent of employees in this sector have pension coverage.
