Interesting report about retirement lifestyle (Quilter Retirement Lifestyle Report 2025)

ali_bear

JoeCrystal said:

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Thanks for posting OP. 

But take a look at this strange graphic. Why have they squished the 40-75k range? It is almost as if the person responsible with making it got bored with the task half way through. Did they run out of colours?

BTW I for one certainly plan to have a gross retirement income. 

GibbsRule_No3.

The article I saw seemed to say rent was per month and the numbers they used were more like what I pay per week, London granted but Social Housing, no benefit due to private pension, the other numbers sounded okay. No mention of cars, which unlike me I assume most people might have, the yearly £££ lower end is about what I have, so others must be using money on other things not mentioned and mine goes on rent.

MeteredOut

JoeCrystal said:

I just came across the report about the attitudes and health of retired people. It is interesting to see that spending is far more realistic compared to the Retirement Living Standards: from PLSA or as they call themselves now, Pensions UK.

It suggests that the average retiree spends £22,141 annually, with holidays, shopping and housing as the most significant expenses. Full breakdown can be found on page 15. Critically, and I agree, the state pension is heavily reliant upon. The report pretty much divided them into six sections based on income and age.

I personally thought it was an interesting read. So I wonder which retirement personas you belong to! 

I attached the link to the full report itself: https://www.quilter.com/4a327f/siteassets/about-us/quilter-retirement-lifestyle-report.pdf

Here is the webpage for anyone who doesn't want to read through the whole report:

https://www.quilter.com/products-and-services/retirement/quilter-retirement-lifestyle-report-2025/?Role=cust

EDIT: I am shocked, shocked to find out that many are not happy about the IHT changes: I quoted:

"One underappreciated aspect of the change to inheritance tax is the extent to which it has rendered previous financial plans redundant. Our research found that a little over a third (35%) of retirees chose to transfer out their defined benefit pension into a defined contribution pot in retirement. Of this group, 40% did so because they wanted to pass it on to family in a tax-efficient way. Many of these people will now find they have to radically alter their plans to ensure their families are not in line for large tax bills when they die."

Thanks for posting - i've not read the report yet, but is anyone else skeptical that 35% have in fact transferred their DB scheme to a DC scheme?

I am, which makes me skeptical about the rest of the report too - not the authors, but on the respondents knowledge of pensions and how they answered the survey.

Or I wonder if what they meant was people drawing down their DB pot sooner, and using those funds to top up their DC pot.

Albermarle

MeteredOut said:

JoeCrystal said:

I just came across the report about the attitudes and health of retired people. It is interesting to see that spending is far more realistic compared to the Retirement Living Standards: from PLSA or as they call themselves now, Pensions UK.

It suggests that the average retiree spends £22,141 annually, with holidays, shopping and housing as the most significant expenses. Full breakdown can be found on page 15. Critically, and I agree, the state pension is heavily reliant upon. The report pretty much divided them into six sections based on income and age.

I personally thought it was an interesting read. So I wonder which retirement personas you belong to! 

I attached the link to the full report itself: https://www.quilter.com/4a327f/siteassets/about-us/quilter-retirement-lifestyle-report.pdf

Here is the webpage for anyone who doesn't want to read through the whole report:

https://www.quilter.com/products-and-services/retirement/quilter-retirement-lifestyle-report-2025/?Role=cust

EDIT: I am shocked, shocked to find out that many are not happy about the IHT changes: I quoted:

"One underappreciated aspect of the change to inheritance tax is the extent to which it has rendered previous financial plans redundant. Our research found that a little over a third (35%) of retirees chose to transfer out their defined benefit pension into a defined contribution pot in retirement. Of this group, 40% did so because they wanted to pass it on to family in a tax-efficient way. Many of these people will now find they have to radically alter their plans to ensure their families are not in line for large tax bills when they die."

Thanks for posting - i've not read the report yet, but is anyone else skeptical that 35% have in fact transferred their DB scheme to a DC scheme?

I am, which makes me skeptical about the rest of the report too - not the authors, but on the respondents knowledge of pensions and how they answered the survey.

I wonder if what they mean was people drawing down their DB pot sooner, and using those funds to top up their DC pot.

Yes also sceptical of that figure. I think with one of the 'personas' the % was around 50%.

Triumph13

I'm sceptical of all the numbers.  The average 'early scrimper' spends £38k per year, but the category is defined as having gross income <£35k?  The underlying research might be okay, but the paper seems to have been written by someone from the marketing department with very limited numeracy.  Or possibly ChatGPT.

Grumpy_chap

JoeCrystal said:

"One underappreciated aspect of the change to inheritance tax is the extent to which it has rendered previous financial plans redundant. Our research found that a little over a third (35%) of retirees chose to transfer out their defined benefit pension into a defined contribution pot in retirement. Of this group, 40% did so because they wanted to pass it on to family in a tax-efficient way. Many of these people will now find they have to radically alter their plans to ensure their families are not in line for large tax bills when they die."

That does not make sense to me.

An individual with a DB pension scheme does not have any value that can be left to dependents.  (Sometimes spousal pension.)
An individual who transfers that DB value to DC for the purpose of being able to leave the value to their family can still do so. 
The Estate (not the family) may incur a tax bill on that pension value. 
The family still get 60% of the pension value rather than the nothing that would have been the case had the pension remained in DB scheme.

d6fs1l

The assertion that over 35% of people with DB pensions transfer these to DC arrangements is surely incorrect -- and wildly so.

westv

d6fs1l said:

The assertion that over 35% of people with DB pensions transfer these to DC arrangements is surely incorrect -- and wildly so.

3.5% maybe?

michaels

GibbsRule_No3. said:

The article I saw seemed to say rent was per month and the numbers they used were more like what I pay per week, London granted but Social Housing, no benefit due to private pension, the other numbers sounded okay. No mention of cars, which unlike me I assume most people might have, the yearly £££ lower end is about what I have, so others must be using money on other things not mentioned and mine goes on rent.

Surely it is an average housing cost, so some will be renters paying more, the majority will be home owners paying much less?

BobR64

I couldn't really make head nor tail of this, though admittedly it was only a quick skim.

The other report - the Retirement Living Standards one - often seems to get criticised for being too extravagant, but this one seems to go to the other extreme. Eating out expenses of £19 a month?! I assume that's some sort of average between people who don't eat out at all and those who spend a lot more, but what use is a number like that?