Briefing Notes

Briefing Note 54 - Retirement income and assets: outlook for the future

Recent pensions policy development in the UK has mostly focused on helping people to accumulate assets to fund retirement. While there has been some research on the use of assets in retirement, most of the research has examined particular assets in isolation. The PPI’s Retirement income and assets project considers the evolution of financial needs during the course of retirement and the roles that different sources of income and assets could have in meeting those needs.

This Briefing Note summarises the main conclusions of the first four reports in the Retirement income and assets project. Findings from the retirement income and assets project indicate that many future pensioners are likely to have a greater variety of income and assets, including housing wealth, available for use in retirement. Reforms to state pensions could result in pensioners receiving more income from state pensions in future. Automatic enrolment and changes in the private pensions market mean that in future many more people will be retiring with DC private pension savings.

The Retirement income and assets project was sponsored by Age Concern and Help the Aged (Age UK), the Association of British Insurers (ABI), the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), the Investment Management Association, J.P. Morgan Asset Management and Prudential PLC. PPI is grateful to all the sponsors for their support in producing this work.