Gardeners urge Brits to ‘grow your pension’
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The Pension Attention campaign to raise public awareness has launched with a theme of ‘grow your pension’, spearheaded by record-breaking giant vegetable growers. This year's film suggests that like vegetables, pensions just need time, care and regular attention to thrive.
Now in its fifth year, the initiative is led by the Association of British Insurers and Pensions UK, and supported by pensions organisations.
The campaign directs the public to pensionattention.co.uk for guidance on how to check their pension. A film features veg growers Kevin Fortey, a 15-time Guinness World Record holder known as ‘Mr Giant Veg’, Aniket Sardana, who has appeared on BBC Two’s Gardeners’ World, and Farida Sober, known for her ‘seed snail’ growing method.
“By teaming up with the UK’s best growers, we want to make pensions feel less like another admin task and more like something worth tending to. Just like the finest vegetables, with attention, care and time, your pension could flourish," said campaign spokesperson Helen Mitchell.
“For a lot of people, pensions can feel complicated or like something to worry about later – and that's exactly why they get ignored," said personal finance expert Emmanuel Asuquo, who is backing the initiative.
Asuquo said understanding how much is already in a pension is an important first step: "Take a few minutes to find your pensions, check what you're paying in and see what they're currently projected to give you in retirement. You don't need to become a pensions expert overnight – you just need to start paying attention to your future.”
The initiative begins as new research – commissioned by Pension Attention from OnePoll among 2,000 nationally representative adults – suggests 37% of UK adults do not understand how their pension grows over time. It also found that half (52%) have never checked their pensions balance, and 13% "bury their heads in the soil", according to Pensions UK. A third (33%) do not know what is in their pension. Just as worryingly, as many as 36% think they have pension pots from previous jobs but never traced them.
Many people are also unclear what retirement means in practice as 29% admit they do not know how much money they will need.
Schemes and firms who would like to support the campaign can access resources such as logos and social media assets here.
