UK named one of the WORST places to retire in Europe for people working right now
THE UK has been ranked as one of the worst countries in Europe for future millennial retirement, prompting experts to suggest what workers can do to get the best from a bad situation.
With the percentage of pre-retirement earnings and social security retention both below 30 percent while ranking in the top half of the most expensive countries, the UK garnered its ranking as the third worst European country for millennial retirement. Investment and pension experts shared their insights on why the UK has ranked so poorly and what savers can do to improve their situation exclusively with Express.co.uk
The UK is looking increasingly unattractive for their retirement for the millennial generation – meaning those aged 25 to 40 – research from Our Life Plan has found.
Worryingly, The UK was rated worst in the ‘pension percentage or pre-retirement savings’ category in all of Europe with an abysmal 28.4 percent.
In comparison, Turkey ranked highest with 93.8 percent, which also ranked in the top three cheapest European countries.
The one category in which the UK excelled was life expectancy, which when taking into account the other poor ratings for retirement, is understandably worrying for young workers.
Ian Wright, founder of Our Life Plan, suggested several factors contribute to the the UK’s poor ranking.
He said: “The UK has the lowest pension percentage of pre-retirement earnings at only 28.4 percent.
“Also, one of the biggest problems in the UK is the high cost of apartments in both the city centres and outside of city centres. In fact, the country is in the top 12 of the countries with the highest average apartment costs from the ones that were analysed.”
Currently, only Switzerland and Lithuania beat the UK for the worst places to retire in Europe, but what can savers and retirees do to enjoy their retirement to the fullest despite all fo this?
David Woodward, founder of Woodward Financials, said the negative outlook for millennial retirement didn’t come as a shock to him.
He told Express.co.uk: “I’m not at all surprised that the United Kingdom comes out as one of the worst countries in Europe and you could go as far as one of the worst in the developed world.”
Mr Woodward said the millennial dilemma could be attributed to the ‘You Only Live Once’ attitude, which is sabotaging their retirement planning.
“The UK Government has tried to tackle the shortfall in millennial pension provision by extending the state retirement age to 68 years for now, who knows, will it hit 70 years of age? As well as introducing auto-enrolment to force employees into starting retirement provision earlier with the help of their employers.
“This is like placing a sticky plaster on the problem rather than tackling the root cause,” he concluded.
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For more information you can contact David on 01753 839348 or email davidwoodward@woodwardfinancials.co.uk
