wise to put money as soon in life

This week we saw the Pension Commission come out and report that for the first time, pensioners are set to be poorer than current standards. We've also seen that they've said 18 million people currently are not saving into their pensions, 15 million not enough, and out of the self-employed industry with 4.5 million people, some estimates are saying as low as 4% of people are regularly saving into towards their pension. Speaking from my own audience, I'm hearing stories of young people who simply just say, I've got to opt out of auto-enrollment, I need that extra 100 pounds for the weekly shop. It's as simple as that, I can't afford to put money towards my pension. If we look at the current state of pensions, we know that the National Insurance cap is going to come in in a couple of years. There's no real incentive for self-employed people like there is in auto-enrollment. The 8% number that is the auto-enrollment number is a little bit too low according to research for comfortable retirement. It starts at 22, not 18, and there's a qualifying earnings base for that as well, which is just over 6,000 pounds, and that's before we even get into the gender pension gap. I would love to know, of course, knowing how fundamental pensions are, how can the government make this a much more relevant topic? Look, there is the Pension Commission as you mentioned. They will come to their final report next year, and obviously we'll look good and hard at their recommendations. I think the point you make about young people is really important, and it really links to the cost of living because all the time the cost of living is bearing down on young people. It is hard to put extra money aside for a pension. That 100 pounds that you might have put into a pension fund needs to be used on food and energy, petrol, whatever it may be. So all the measures we're taking to make sure rent increases are capped, the measures we're taking to make sure energy prices are reduced, the measures we're taking over the summer on fuel duty, etc., all of that matters because it means a little bit more money which then can go into a pension pot, because that is the balance that so many young people are making.