KEY POINTS:
Bold new enhancements to KiwiSaver are drawing more people towards the scheme, but despite the money being tossed at it most still don't plan to join to begin saving for retirement.
A Herald-DigiPoll survey taken after the Budget has found that the prospect of employer and government contributions to participants' saving accounts is proving alluring - but only modestly so.
The mixed results suggest the jury is still out on whether the scheme that Labour made the centrepiece of its Budget will be the vote winner it needs going into next year's election.
Two-thirds of people who took part in the poll said they were not in a retirement savings scheme, and of those non-savers 37.2 per cent said they intended to join KiwiSaver.
Just over half - 52.2 per cent - did not plan to join.
Asked if the Budget announcement that the Government would contribute up to $20 a week and that employers would also have to contribute made them want to be in the scheme, 44.5 per cent of respondents said yes.
In an even result, 47.2 per cent said the new measures did not make them want to be in the savings scheme.
Just over 8 per cent were unsure.
Dr Cullen yesterday said he was "heartened" by the poll result.
Forecasts for KiwiSaver predicted that 50 per cent of New Zealanders aged 18-65 would be actively contributing by 2016-17, and the reaction to last week's Budget measures was not far from that level.
"I think those numbers are about what I'd like to see," Dr Cullen said.
A major KiwiSaver advertising campaign will be launched on Monday, including television commercials featuring what Dr Cullen described as "ordinary people in ordinary situations talking".
"From the sort of feedback I'm getting from people, it is a circuit breaker," Dr Cullen said.
"A circuit breaker both in terms of attitudes and in terms of people's own belief in their ability to do something which might be worthwhile for them."
The National Party has not yet indicated whether it would keep the enhanced post-Budget version of KiwiSaver should it win power.
Last night, National leader John Key said the poll results showed there may be some overestimating going on of the likely take-up rate of KiwiSaver.
"What that shows is two-thirds of New Zealanders are now being asked to forgo a tax cut and a pay increase to cross-subsidise only one-third of the country."
That seemed an unfair burden on those who would miss out.
