Overview

• Financial planners say saving about £275 a month from age 22 could build roughly £560,000 by age 67, based on a 5% annual return and in line with PLSA ‘comfortable’ benchmarks.
• Under auto‑enrolment, a typical 8% of gross pay goes into workplace pensions, with only around 4% coming from the employee and the rest from employer contributions and tax relief.
• Standard Life warns new graduates that raising pension contributions by just one percentage point can make a notable difference, citing an increase from £210,000 to £236,000 on a £25,000 starting salary by age 68.
• Plum’s Gen Z Pension Report finds 53% of 18–28 year‑olds have not started saving, and one in five have not thought about pensions, despite awareness that small, regular deposits can add up over time.
• Chase research reports nearly 8 million people now prioritise a comfortable retirement and aim to save about £13,811 a year on top of the state pension, though many cite inflation pressures and a gender gap in monthly saving.