50% now have private pension cover, CSO finds

Just over 50 per cent of employed people aged between 20 and 69 have private pension coverage according to the first set of pension data prepared by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) using the Quarterly National Household Survey.

The survey shows that 50.7 per cent of those aged between 20 and 69 have pension cover.

This figure if broken down shows that 35 per cent of employees have an occupational pension, 12.6 per cent have a personal pension only and 2.9 per cent have both types of cover.

Unsurprisingly, the CSO found that pension cover varies with the age, gender and martial status. Younger people have less cover than their older colleagues with the coverage rate for workers between 20 and 24 the lowest among all age groups at 24.4 per cent.

This compares to the highest rate of 60.5 per cent for workers aged between 35 and 44.

These figures are intended to set a benchmark for future measurement of pension coverage in Ireland.

The Pensions Board welcomed the findings and said it was strongly committed to increasing private pension coverage as recommended in its National Pensions Policy Initiative Report.