Key themes
With twelve hours of discussion, plus a further six follow-up interviews involving more than fifty women in total, a huge range of points were made and issues discussed. We have tried – with difficulty – to distil this wealth of material into a set of five ‘key themes’ which emerged from these discussions. Where possible, we have commented on how consistent these themes were across the different groups and how different the groups' perspectives were.
The five key themes were:
1. A generational shift
2. Insufficient knowledge and a lack of trust in pensions
3. A desire for accessible information about pensions and savings
4. The wide range of strategies used to save for later life
5. Strong hopes and dreams for later life, but anxiety about ability to attain those goals
In this section, we set out these themes in more detail, illustrated by audio and quotes from the participants in our research.
1) A generational shift
Saheeda, 30-45, African
Participants in our younger age groups had markedly different assumptions and attitudes to paid work compared to older groups. This was particularly striking in the groups involving Pakistani and Bangladeshi women, where women have historically had much lower levels of engagement with paid work than amongst other groups.
“I come from a family of eight and my mum never worked and my dad was a bus driver [but] we've all been to university, all got educated. We could have chosen not to but I suppose we decided to go. And so I think it boils down to … education. We're all independent, we all do our own thing, we've all got full time jobs, we've got good careers.”
Pakistani / Bangladeshi, 30-45 group
2) Gaps in knowledge, misconceptions and lack of trust
Samaira, 30-45, Pakistani / Bangladeshi
Many participants in the discussions acknowledged that they had quite low levels of understanding about even the basics of saving for later life, especially through a pension. There was, however, a difference between those who worked in the public and private sectors, with the former much more confident about their pension situation.
“If we were to take it early, how much would they drop from us? If we took it later, would we get more? Is there any other pension we could pay into? Probably where we're gonna get better money back. If we were to die, where does the money go? Like, does it just get wiped out?”
Pakistani / Bangladeshi, 30-45 group
3) Desire for accessible information about pensions and saving
Shazia, 45+, Pakistani / Bangladeshi
Although there was a considerable lack of knowledge about pensions and, in some cases, a lack of trust, this did not indicate a lack of interest. Indeed, a consistent theme across all of the focus groups was a desire for more information about how the system worked. This was particularly notable amongst those who worked in the private sector who had been automatically enrolled into a workplace pension but knew little about it.
“Yeah, it needs to be different...People that look similar to us to explain, you know, what the benefits are. The pros are why we do it. What's the reasoning behind it? …. You've also got GP surgeries and medical practices where you have you know, dentists, all of that, utilise them opportunities. It's really important to engage our community in our own languages.”
Indian / Sri Lankan 30-45 group
4) Diverse range of ways of providing for later life finances
Niflah aka Fatima, 30-45, Indian / Sri Lankan
Across the different focus groups, workplace pensions were rarely seen as the only way of providing financially for later life (with the major exception of those in public sector Defined Benefit schemes), and a wide range of other strategies was described to supplement or even replace pension savings.
“When our parents came in the 60s and 70s, they had nothing. So... we grew up with nothing. So they built and built and my dad bought a business and they worked seven days a week... and they really wanted to educate their children so they'd have a different future.”
Pakistani / Bangladeshi, 30-45 group
5) Hopes and dreams for later life – but are pensions seen as the answer?
Kadia, 30-45, African
Many of our participants saw retirement as a positive phase of life. If things worked out well, they would be financially secure and could independently maintain their pre-retirement lifestyle into retirement. Ideally, many would like to retire early. The challenge for the pension industry will be to help people see pension saving as an integral part of fulfilling those aspirations.
“You need to work with a range of different stakeholders. You need a very savvy person from the West Indian community, someone who actually understands and knows wealth. So what's the name of that lovely family that do some really amazing things, the Forbes family. So him and his family, you know, they're absolutely financially savvy. But then you need to work with people like me that actually don't get it, because I'm going to look at whatever's being designed and built differently to what Mr. Forbes and everyone in between is actually gonna look. So I can't tell you what looks good. All I do know is that there needs to be more education within the community.”
Caribbean, 45+ group
“We are probably the first generation who don't look at it in that way. We don't want to burden our children, rather we want to help our children if we can.”
Indian / Sri Lankan, 30-45 group
“But the problem I've got is the government keep moving their goalposts. So there was a time where we could happily retire…. Now you're expected to work to like 76. So the disparity adding another 16 years. And if you're from a migrant background with high cholesterol and diabetes, you know it's not going to happen.”
Indian / Sri Lankan, 30-45 group
“But I just want to add that the use of easy-to-understand language, if we are targeting our community or community whose English is second language. I mean sometimes the language is so twisted. It's very hard to understand what they really want to say. Just easy words, easy, simple language so that, you know, it's not just our community. There are so many other communities whose, you know, English is a second language. So yes, this makes things easier.”
Indian / Sri Lankan, 30-45 group You can read more direct quotes from our participants here.