How Covid-19 has impacted peoples’ retirement Plans in the UK 

The Covid-19 pandemic has put massive financial strain on people across the UK, affecting their beliefs on when, or even if they’ll be able to afford to retire.

The steep rise in redundancies has made many reassess their options when it comes to planning for retirement.

Another outcome is the growth in remote working, meaning many of us cancelling our daily commute. This along with the furlough scheme has given much of the population an insight into what life in retirement could be like – a retirement test drive if you like.

Joslin Rhodes Pension & Retirement Planning have commissioned independent research to gauge public opinion on how the pandemic has affected peoples’ thoughts on when they’ll retire.

Are they expecting to work longer, continue to work after retirement, retire sooner, or alternatively, has nothing changed at all?

Key Statistics

If you’re not up-to reading the full article we won’t be offended. Honest.

Here are the key statistics from our research:

• 17.5 % of users aged 45-64 stated that the Covid-19 pandemic had altered their retirement plans.
• 21.4% of men aged 45-64 reported Covid-19 had altered their retirement plans compared to only 13.5% of women.
• 10.8% of people aged 45-64 feel Covid-19 has forced them to retire later than originally planned.
• Search volume for “can I retire early” increased 190% from March 2020 to March 2021
• The number of pension-related online searches has increased by 52% since the start of lockdown (March 23rd, 2020).
• The number of online searches for ‘How to retire?’ has increased 32% whilst ‘Can I retire?’ has increased 33% since March 2020.

• ‘Retirement Age UK’ was searched 49,000 times in March 2021 compared to just 29,000 times in March 2020.

Has Covid-19 impacted retirement Plans in the UK?

Has the Covid-19 pandemic played a part in when people plan to retire? 

We decided to find out.

Between 16-17 of April 2021, we surveyed 1,000 UK people, aged 45-64.

A massive 17.5 % of responders stated that the Covid-19 pandemic had changed their retirement plans.

Covid hasn’t impacted my retirement plans	82.5%
Later than I originally planned	10.79%
Earlier than I originally planned	6.66

Figure 1: Results from Google survey of 1,003 participants.

Most people aged 45-64 said that Covid hasn’t impacted when they plan to retire (82.5%).

However, across the 1000+ we surveyed, within those aged 45-64 a notable 10.7% of people feel Covid has forced them to delay retirement, whilst 6.6% have retired earlier than they originally planned.

Men aged 45-64 have been most affected, with 21.4% reporting the pandemic had altered their retirement plans in some form, whilst only 13.5% of women said the same.

The most affected age group is 45-54yr old men, with 22.8% of those surveyed saying Covid-19 has affected when they’d like to retire.

Our Findings

 

Retirement: Let’s Google That

We can always rely on Google data to help us get into the minds of our population.

Using kwfinder.com, we compared the number of searches in March 2020 with the number of searches in March 2021 (specific to the UK) for various queries relating to pensions and retirement.

Here’s the data:

Keyword	Searches in google in March 2020	Searches in Google in March 2021
Retirement age UK	14,900	49.500
Pension age UK	8,100	12,100
Can I retire	6,600	14,100

 

We then used Google trend analysis to assess the growth in search volume for pension and retirement-related keywords since the start of lockdown – March 2020 to April 2021.

When using the trend line as a measurement we noticed the number of searches for ‘how to retire’ has increased 32% whilst ‘can I retire’ has gone up 33% since March 2020.

The number of pension-related searches has also increased by a whopping 52% since the start of lockdown one.

 

However, if we disregard the results for the months in between, and just compare March 2020 Vs March 2021, we see much more significant changes.

Searches for ‘Retirement Age UK’ has increased by over 230%.

We hope these retirement statistics have given you an insight into the UK population’s current perception of how the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted peoples’ retirement planning.

If you’re looking to make sense of your pension and retirement planning options with straightforward financial planning advice, we’re here to help.

Let’s show you:

✓ Retirement Savings – how much you need to save for retirement

✓ Retirement Date – when you can afford to stop working

✓ Retirement Income – how much you can spend in retirement.

You can check out our pension advice page, contact our friendly team on 033 0133 3035, or use the form below to arrange a call back from one of our experts.