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The findings from freelancer and self-employed group, IPSE, and financial planning consultants CMME Contractor Wealth, are the latest sign of a worsening outlook for the retirement plans of the self-employed.
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The top reasons reported by the self-employed for not currently saving into a pension included having other financial priorities (34 per cent), affordability (24 per cent) and ceasing contributions to a pension after becoming self-employed (24 per cent).
This follows similar research in 2021, which found that 14 per cent of self-employed professionals were not saving for later life in any way.
Automatic enrolment
Unlike employees, the self-employed do not benefit from automatic enrolment into a workplace pension or from additional contributions by an employer.
Andy Chamberlain from IPSE, said: “Successive Governments have ducked the issue of self-employed savings for years, but the crisis is now too big for a future Government to ignore. It will likely require intervention of a magnitude similar to automatic enrolment for employees.
“Pensions aren’t the only option for those saving for later life. Some self-employed people may find other methods of saving more attractive, if they were better suited to volatile incomes; the Lifetime ISA is one example, and IPSE has called for it to be revamped to better serve independent workers.
“With an election little over one year away, political parties with ambitions for Government must get to grips with this challenge now and be unafraid to propose bold, radical solutions in their bid to win the backing of the self-employed."
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Susie Hughes © Shout99 2023
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