How do people feel about the future of retirement?

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At the Standard Life Centre for the Future of Retirement, our ambition is to help everyone achieve long-term financial security and a decent standard of living in retirement. In our research we look at what the experience of retirement looks like today, how retirement is changing, and what it could look like in the future.

In our annual survey Retirement Voice 2026, we asked 6,000 people across the UK to tell us how they feel about their financial lives, their work, and their retirement. Our survey includes people aged 18 to 80, so while many people are already retired, others are looking 40 or 50 years into the future.

A clear, positive finding from the survey is that most retired people feel financially secure and report a good standard of living. 7 in 10 people who are retired say their standard of living today is better than or similar to their life before they retired.

In this article, however, we’re going to focus on people who aren’t yet retired. How do people feel about retirement looking ahead to the future?

Looking forward to retirement?

First, we find a mixed picture in terms of planning ahead for retirement. We ask people how much planning or thinking they’ve done about retirement, and what their finances in retirement might look like. Most people say they’ve done at least “a little” planning, but about one in three people (35%) say they’ve done no planning at all. This could be for a range of reasons – whether because retirement feels like it’s a long way ahead, or because people are focusing on the ups and downs of life today.

We also asked people how they thought they might spend their time in retirement. As you might guess, people look forward to spending time doing hobbies, travelling, relaxing at home, and spending more time with family and friends. Interestingly, in broad terms, the answers of those looking ahead to their future retirement are similar to how retirees today report spending their time. This suggests that generally people have similar aspirations for retirement in the future as today.

Are people worried about the future of retirement?

However, Retirement Voice 2026 also reveals that many people are worried that they won’t be able to enjoy a decent standard of living in retirement. For example:

63% of people are worried they aren’t saving enough for when they’re older

42% are worried their standard of living in retirement will be worse than it is today (and this is trending in the wrong direction, up from 33% in 2024)

Only half of people (49%) think that the State Pension will be available for everyone when they come to retire

We also asked people how they feel about the world they’ll retire into. A clear majority (58%) think the world will be a worse place to live in when they come to retire, compared to just one in ten (12%) who say they think the world will be a better place to live in. This pessimism about what the world will be like in the future is likely to be affecting how people feel about their own future retirement.

Are people right to be concerned about the future of retirement?

To some extent, people may always be worried about the future, since it is inherently uncertain. So are these ordinary worries about the future, or are people right to be concerned?

In some ways, people may be overly pessimistic. For example, the UK government remains committed to the State Pension as the foundation of financial security in retirement, and this is unlikely to change any time soon.

But in other ways, people’s worries may be justified.

That’s because people are right to be worried about whether they’re saving enough for retirement. The DWP estimate that around 4 in 10 people (43%) aren’t saving enough today. Many people, such as those who are self-employed, aren’t saving into a pension at all.

We also know that the pensions system is changing. Gradually, fewer people will be retiring with Defined Benefit pensions, and more of us will be relying on Defined Contribution pensions. This doesn’t need to make retirement worse, but it does mean people will have to make more decisions about how and when to access the money saved in their pension. As we have found in our research Taking the Plunge people have a range of emotions and experiences in making these decisions.

Another difference is that, looking into the future, on current trends more people may be renting in retirement. That could reduce financial security for future retirees, compared to people who are retired today.

What does this mean for policy makers?

The UK government has set up a new Pensions Commission, to examine the future of the UK pensions system to 2050 and beyond. And the results of Retirement Voice 2026 show why the Pensions Commission’s work is so vital.

The Pensions Commission cannot solve everything, but it can make a substantial contribution to improving people’s prospects of financial security in retirement. There are many ways the Pensions Commission can help to achieve this, but three broad objectives it should have are:

1. To recommend policy changes which enable people to save more today for their retirement in the future, particularly via changes to the automatic enrolment system
2. To ensure people have the support and guidance they need when making decisions about their retirement finances
3. To help maintain and build trust in the UK pensions system for the long term

Retirement in the future will be different. But that doesn’t mean we all need to be pessimistic about the future – different doesn’t have to mean worse. The findings from Retirement Voice 2026 show both optimism and anxiety about what lies ahead. Understanding those hopes, concerns and expectations is essential if we want future generations to feel more confident about retirement. And if the Second Pensions Commission is successful, more people will be able to look ahead to the future with confidence.
 

What would success look like?

There are all sorts of ways to measure this, but one of them is improving people’s trust in the pensions system and their confidence in the common hope for a decent retirement. As the interim report of the Pensions Commission said, “Our commitment is to ensure that future generations are more hopeful about financial security in retirement.” In the future, we hope to see some of that greater level of optimism in subsequent editions of Retirement Voice.