This paper investigates individuals' expectations about their own survival to older ages and compares patterns in average responses about survival chances with actual and projected survival rates. The extent to which individuals have, on average, accurate expectations about survival to older...

In the UK, those born between the 1930s and 1950s have seen generation-on-generation increases in wealth, while those born more recently appear to have accumulated no more wealth than their predecessors had done by the same age. There is debate over the drivers, and therefore implications, of...

This report gives a new and up-to-date picture of the giving and receiving of significant intergenerational wealth transfers during life, summarising the findings of two research papers. New data from the Wealth and Assets Survey (WAS) allow us to build a comprehensive picture of the flow of...

How should pensions be taxed? We propose income tax and National Insurance reforms that would more evenly support pension saving. Pensions are the biggest component of household wealth and are treated favourably by the tax system. That means getting pensions tax design right matters. It matters...

This report describes patterns of financial help from family received by first-time buyers. We quantify the value of gifts and loans made, how they vary across different regions of the country and between those from different parental backgrounds, and shed light on their role in explaining...

The tax system treats funds that remain in a pension at death extremely favourably. Where an individual dies before age 75, funds remaining in their pension escape income tax entirely - there was income tax relief when the money was paid into the pension and no income tax when the money is taken...

This report takes a fresh look at the prospects for the future of retirement incomes for employees in the UK. Since the Pensions Commission reported around 20 years ago, much has changed in the economic and pensions policy environment. While the introduction of automatic enrolment has been in...

This report discusses how public policy should change to bring about better outcomes in retirement for employees through their accumulation of private pension wealth. In doing so, we draw on new modelling undertaken as part of the Pensions Review (O'Brien, Sturrock and Cribb, 2024) as well as...

There have been widespread concerns about the patterns of retirement saving amongst self-employed workers, who now make up just over one in eight of the whole labour force. Most strikingly, the fraction of self-employed workers earning over £10,000 who are making contributions to a private...