Why Gen Z are planning for life without a state pension
Key takeaways
- Why Gen Z are planning for life without a state pension
- By Colletta Smith BBC Your Voice correspondent Joel has finally landed his first graduate engineering job after several years of lower‑paid roles.
- He doesn't think he'll get any kind of state pension.
Why Gen Z are planning for life without a state pension
By Colletta Smith BBC Your Voice correspondent Joel has finally landed his first graduate engineering job after several years of lower‑paid roles. He's in his early 20s, lives with his parents and works in London. But instead of splashing the extra cash, or saving up for holidays or a house deposit, he's decided to squirrel more of it away into his workplace pension.
The reason? He doesn't think he'll get any kind of state pension. Like Joel, around half of Gen Z (those born from 1997–2012) say they don't expect the state pension to exist by the time they retire. It's pretty stark to hear, but growing up with constant headlines about an ageing population, a proportionally smaller working-age population, and the pressure that government finances are under, Joel thinks it's his generation that will suffer.