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Low awareness of pension auto-enrolment plan

Official figures show that around two-thirds of workers had some form of pension coverage, outside the State pension, in the third quarter of 2022.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) said that this figure was unchanged compared with its previous survey in 2021.

There was, however, a slight increase in the level of coverage among younger workers. Just over 30% of workers aged between 20 and 24 had supplementary pension coverage – up from 25% a year earlier.

The coverage figure rose to 75% for the oldest cohort of workers – those aged between 55 and 69.

Auto-enrolment

The State pension was cited as the expected main source of income on retirement for nearly six in ten workers with no pension coverage, while more than a quarter had not yet decided what their main source of income would be.

The survey also sought the views of those eligible for a Government plan for auto-enrolment in workplace pension schemes.

Only 18% of those without coverage were aware of the plan, but 65% said that they would stay in the scheme if automatically enrolled in it.

The Government last year approved the general scheme of a bill on the issue.

Record number at work

Separate CSO figures showed that the number of people at work in Ireland hit a record level of 2,574,500 in the 12 months to the end of 2022. The office began collecting the figures in 1998.

The employment rate for persons aged 15-64 years rose from 73% a year earlier to 73.2%.

The unemployment rate was 4.2% – down from 4.9% at the end of 2021.