Pension Coverage 2020

The Pensions Survey is carried out on an annual basis in the third quarter of the year, using the Labour Force Survey (LFS) survey instrument. The first iteration of this annual data collection on pension coverage in the State commenced in Quarter 3 2018 and is now carried out on an annual basis.

This survey does not measure pensions provided through the State Social Welfare Scheme and instead relates to occupational and personal pension cover (supplementary pension coverage) only for persons in employment aged 20 to 69 years. It also covers occupational pension coverage from previous employments (also for self-employed persons) and personal pensions where payments have been deferred or are in current draw-down mode.

COVID-19 has reshaped the lives of the Irish people in 2020. The survey results presented in this publication cover persons in employment only. Persons who may have been laid off due to the COVID-19 pandemic are not covered in the survey results.

The Pensions Survey data is collected directly from private households. Institutional households (e.g. nursing homes, barracks, boarding schools, hotels etc.) are not covered by the survey.

• In Quarter 3 2020, 64.7% of all persons in employment aged between 20 and 69 years had supplementary pension coverage. This includes occupational pension coverage from current or previous employments and personal pension coverage including those where payments have been deferred for a period of time or are currently being drawn down by the pension holder. See Table 1.1.
• Pension coverage remained lowest among the younger workers. In Quarter 3 2020, 24.4% of workers aged 20 to 24 years had a pension, while almost half (49.9%) of persons in employment aged 25 to 34 years reported having a pension. Pension coverage was greatest among workers aged 45-54 years where over three quarters of persons in employment (76.8%) had supplementary pension coverage. See Table 1.1.
• Of self-employed persons in employment in Quarter 3 2020, 55.2% had a pension. This includes occupational pension coverage from previous employment and also personal pensions (including personal pensions where payments have been deferred for a period of time and pensions currently in draw-down mode). See Table 2.1.
• For persons in employment, supplementary pension coverage (from both occupational and personal pension schemes) of workers aged between 20 and 69 years decreased by over five percentage points when compared with the same period in 2019, with 18.0% in Quarter 3 2020 compared to 23.4% in Quarter 3 2019. See Table 3.1 and Figure 1.1.
• Of those workers with an occupational pension from their current employment, over one third (33.8%) identified their pensions as a ‘defined benefit’ pension while 63.9% had a ‘defined contribution’ pension. See Table 4.1.
• For those workers with no occupational pension coverage from their current employment, more than half (52.2%) stated that their employer does not offer a pension scheme See Table 4.2.
• In Quarter 3 2020, almost one third (32.2%) of workers with personal pension provision had deferred payments for a period of time. Nearly half (49.2%) of personal pension holders in the Process, plant and machine operatives occupational group deferred payments for a period of time, an increase of nearly nine percentage points on the same period in 2019 (40.5%). Similarly, in the case of workers in the Caring, leisure and other services group surveyed in Quarter 3 2020, 45.2% had deferred payments on their personal pensions, compared with 41.1% in 2019. See Tables 5.1 and 5.2.

For further Information see tables on PxStat