Onus is on employers to pick best pension for their staff

Last year Aon conducted a nationwide survey (with the support of YouGov) of employees in defined contribution (DC) pension schemes. It will probably come as no surprise to many of you that despite plenty of focus on this subject over the years; one in three of those surveyed said they had no idea what income they could expect to receive in retirement. Further, one in four did not know what kind of income they might need in retirement to maintain their present standard of living.

When you also add statistics about company schemes, it becomes clear that the employer should also be worrying most about this knowledge gap. For when it comes to DC pensions, our survey suggests that 62% rely on their company scheme to be their primary income source in retirement and 48% will follow whatever their employer puts in place. The onus it seems – at least from the point of view of the majority of employees – is clearly on the employer.