The Government Warns Of A Looming State Pensions Crisis Requiring "Urgent Action"

The government released figures last week that show that for every worker who has made provision for additional income in retirement there are two who appear to be relying solely on the State pension in their later years.

According to Seamus Brennan, T.D., the Minister for Social Affairs, this should be a stark reminder of the substantial pensions challenge facing the country.

Minister Brennan said that the most up to date statistics show that out of a total workforce of over 2 million people - made up of 1.1 million men and 880,000 women - almost 930,000 have no supplementary pensions.

When further broken down by age groups, the statistics show that in the 20-24 years group, 69,000 have personal pensions while 181,000 have made no provision; this ratio improves in the 25-34 year olds with 323,000 with pensions and 286,000 without.

At ages 35-44 the ratio is 314,000 to 168,000; for the 45-54 age group the figures show 251,000 have pensions and 141,000 have not, with the gap closing for 55-69 year-olds of whom 140,000 have supplementary pensions and 123,000 have made no pensions provision.

Speaking at the launch of this year's National Pensions Action Week the Minister unveiled statistics detailing the numbers with and without pensions in the various sectors of the economy showing that:

l Of the 288,300 employed in the retail sector over 197,000 people have no occupational pensions compared with just over 81,000 who have and 9,800 who answered "don't know" or "not applicable" when surveyed.

• In the hotel and catering sectors, of the 116,600 currently employed, just over 12,000 have pensions while over 101,000 do not and 3,000 "don't know".
• In construction, where over 281,000 are employed, the statistics reveal 107,289 have pensions, 163,328 have none and 10,982 "don't know".
• For agriculture, where 115,800 are employed, the numbers with pensions is 29,650, those without number 67,280 and 18,870 "don't knows".
• In other production industry, employing 292,100, the figures are 176,428 with pensions, 107,200 without and 8,470 "don't know".
• Transport with just over 117,000 employed, those with pensions number over 70,000 and over 43,000 have none.
• The financial sector, which has 278,000 employed, over 154,000 have pensions and almost 118,000 have none with over 6,000 undecided.
• In healthcare, with over 182,000 employed, over 110,000 have pensions and close to 67,000 do not , while in education, employing 139,600, the figures show almost 99,000 with pensions and over 38,000 without.
• The healthiest picture emerges from the public sector where over 97,000 of the 105,000 workers have occupational pensions.

Minister Brennan said: "These statistics, when taken with our changing demographics which will see the number of people aged 65 and over treble inside the next few decades, graphically spell out the pensions challenges we are now facing up to in order to ensure all of our people will have decent pensions and security and dignity in their later years."

Minister Brennan said that great strides have been made in recent years in improving social welfare pensions which increased to €200 and over per week in Budget 2007 but he warned that, "most of us would probably feel that we will need to supplement the social welfare pension if we are to continue to maintain our standard of living and lifestyle in retirement.

"The Pensions Board research shows that 79% of those interviewed who do not at present have a pension consider that the social welfare pension will not meet their needs in retirement. Despite this, only 50% of these people plan to do anything about their pension."