Forced savings backed by most

By MARK FRYER

Winston Peters' compulsory superannuation scheme may have been decisively defeated, but 70 per cent of New Zealanders believe we should be made to save for retirement, according to a recent survey.

The Saver Pulse survey carried out by Research Solutions says 70 per cent of those polled agreed with the statement that "I am in favour of some form of compulsory savings scheme to ensure that people provide for themselves in retirement".

Support for Government tax incentives was even higher, at 76 per cent, though that was well down on the 89 per cent who thought incentives were a good idea when the survey was carried out last year.

If such incentives were introduced, 84 per cent of those not yet retired said they would respond by saving more, although the report suggests there may be a degree of exaggeration in that response.

Only 12 per cent of those polled in the telephone survey of 774 people thought the Government would provide them with an adequate retirement income.

Among those who are not retired, a third are not saving for retirement.

Most of that group are younger, and lower-income earners, says the report, but the non-savers also include a significant proportion of people who are middle aged, and one in five of them lives in households where the annual income is $70,000 or more.

Among those who have no savings, 56 per cent don't take any advice on what to do with their money.

Banks and financial advisers are equally popular as a source of advice - 19 per cent of those surveyed took advice from their bank, 18 per cent from an adviser.

The survey also shows that the sharemarket has some distance to go in attracting investors. Only 15 per cent of those polled rated shares very positively as an investment. Residential property was highly rated by 36 per cent, just short of managed investments on 37 per cent.

The survey also asked what counts as "good" return. The median answer was 8.2 per cent, a figure which has been falling over the past five years.