Self-employed pensions time bomb

Latest figures indicate the financial affairs of huge swathes of the country are unstable. Millions of households have nowhere to go when, rather than if, everyday events upset the very fine line between income and spending walked by so many. 

With unemployment low and recent headlines about increasing real wages it would be easy to assume that we’re in reasonably good shape as a nation of consumers. We’re not. Personal debt levels are now at pre-financial crisis levels and just one of the major debt charities estimates that someone new contacts them every 51 seconds because they’ve hit the buffers. But then there’s the silent creep towards a financial precipice many don’t even know is there.

The 5 million self-employed at risk of an old age in poverty for example, ignored behind the fanfare of the workplace pension for being too complex a problem to tackle. So far, the sticky-plaster approach to fixing these and other huge issues by rolling out a series of savings incentives, schemes and limits has only made things more complicated, erecting yet more barriers to getting back on an even keel.