Centre for Policy on Ageing


Understanding default behaviour in workplace pensions — automatic enrolment in the UK
Author(s)	Lynne Robertson-Rose
Journal title	Journal of Social Policy, vol 50, no 1, January 2021
Publisher	Cambridge University Press, January 2021
Pages	pp 21-39
Full text*	https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047279419000813
Annotation	This article examines the retirement savings behaviour of twenty-five 30-40 years olds automatically enrolled into a workplace pension scheme. Using qualitative interviews, the paper explores the interaction between savings motivation and willingness to adhere to, or deviate from, the pension scheme defaults. Integrating insights from different savings paradigms, including sociological approaches and behavioural economics, the paper highlights how social motives drove willingness to accept enrolment defaults. Participants' reactions to the contribution defaults were motivated by a complex combination of factors including anchoring effects, the salience of ageing, and emotional responses such as pride, uncertainty and loss aversion. The author's main premise is that greater attention needs to be given to the interaction between subjective feelings about saving for retirement and pension scheme design.
Accession Number	CPA-210205211 A
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