Research and analysis

Planning and preparing for later life: social survey feasibility study

This report presents the findings of a feasibility study into how DWP can better understand the ways people plan and prepare for later life.

• From: Department for Work and Pensions
• Published: 6 February 2019

Documents

Planning and preparing for later life: a social survey feasibility study

Ref: ISBN 978-1-78659-136-4, Ad hoc research report no. 71

PDF, 1.85 MB, 99 pages

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Details

Substantial changes have been made to the UK pension landscape over the last decade. With an ageing population and workforce, it is important that policymakers have reliable and up-to-date information on people’s behaviours and attitudes towards planning and preparation for later life. A good understanding of how people make work, retirement and pensions decisions is also vital to making a full assessment of recent changes and informing future policy development.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) commissioned NatCen Social Research to conduct a feasibility study into the most appropriate and cost-effective means to get policy-relevant evidence across these areas in the UK.

The report recommends introducing a bespoke, cross-sectional survey of 40 to 75 year olds, repeated every 3 to 5 years. It also looks at other options and makes recommendations to help inform the future direction of research into later life issues concerning:

• work decisions
• retirement planning
• pension saving

Authors: Debbie Collins, Ruxandra Comanaru, Catherine Fenton and Mari Toomse-Smith (NatCen Social Research), Tricia Dodd (freelance consultant), Rosie Gloster (Institute for Employment Studies) and Daniela Silcock (Pensions Policy Institute).

Published 6 February 2019