The Pensions Advisory Service (TPAS) has launched a service for the self-employed with the aim of helping them save towards a better retirement.
The review will come in the form of a phone appointment that is tailored to the needs of the self-employed, covering topics such as money, work, family and health, all backed up by a summary document and online content.
Prior to launching the service, TPAS conducted a pilot to better understand how the self-employed see retirement planning and what it could do to help.
It found participants were keep to save into pensions for their retirement though levels of knowledge and confidence were low. The majority of those who took part in the pilot said the main barrier to retirement saving was that they did not know where to go for help. “Time pressures” was cited as the second biggest obstacle.
There are 4.8 million self-employed people, meaning 15% of the UK labour force is self-employed. The average age of a self-employed person is 47.
‘Leading by example’
TPAS chief executive Michelle Cracknell said: “TPAS is about helping people get the best possible pension they can in retirement. Self-employed people do not have the support some employees receive from their employer so we want to fill this void.
“We challenged ourselves to design the content of a review that would resonate with the self-employed, where the interaction between work, health, family and money can be much closer with no employer support when life does not go as planned. We would like a midlife review that looks at the financial aspect of retirement to become the social norm for everyone including the self-employed.”
Alistair Mcqueen, who is head of savings and retirement at Aviva – one firm that has already launched a ‘midlife MOT’ service for its employees – said he was pleased to hear the news.
“TPAS are leading by example,” he added. “Those in midlife are at the vanguard of our increasingly longer working lives; they are the first to navigate the pension freedoms -and they are found to be the most stressed in the country. It is a population in need of support.
“Aviva shares TPAS’s ambition to help those in mid-life. We hope others will follow where TPAS and Aviva are leading.”
The idea of a midlife review – then referred to as a ‘midlife MOT’ – was first proposed in the Cridland Report, which suggested the policy would act as a check-up on a person’s finances, much as someone might receive a check-up from a doctor.