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THIS Thursday, millions of us will be feeling foolish as our energy bills soar by £100.
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Half the population are overpaying for gas and electricity — as a quarter of us have never switched supplier and another 25 per cent of people’s discount deals have ended.
Many are too lazy to change provider or wrongly believe they will not save money.
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The average standard tariff annual bill will be around £1,138, the level of the price cap, as most suppliers ramp up prices blaming wholesale energy costs.
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Money makeover
THE impact of the pandemic has prompted Rob Copeland to focus on saving for the long-term.
The 49-year-old care officer lives with wife Suzanne in Macclesfield, Cheshire, and earns about £16,500 a year.
He says: “It’s been a really challenging past year at work. It made me think about the future – and whether I’m on track for retirement.”
Rob has been contributing to a company pension for about five years.
He wants to retire when he is 67. He hopes this will provide about £1,200 a month in income, but doesn’t know how much is in the pot at present.
His company pays about 5 per cent of his salary into the pension, and he contributes 3 per cent on top.
“But there might be more paid in by the company over time,” he says. “I never paid into a company pension in previous jobs.”
Previously, Rob was self-employed and worked for a wholesale company, where he was not able to access the pension scheme.
He does, however, pay £200 a month into a private pension with Aviva in a medium-risk portfolio, which is currently worth about £120,000.
“I got some pension projections for what this will provide from age 55 – and it’s only about £2,000 a year,” he says.
But he plans to leave this to grow for as long as possible. Rob says he’d be happy with less than he’s currently earning during retirement.
He expects to receive the full state pension, which will form a basic income.
He owns a property outright with his wife, worth about £260,000.
ANSWER, from Sarah Coles, personal financial expert at Hargreaves Lansdowne
IT is sensible of Rob to take stock of where he stands.This does not just mean checking what’s in each pension pot – although that’s an excellent start.
It also means considering when he wants to finish work, and where he wants to live in retirement.
This is a conversation he should have with his wife, so he can consider both their incomes.
If he wants to retire at his state pension age of 67, it seems he’s on track, assuming he needs an income of £15,000 before tax.
The full state pension is worth just over £9,000. His £120,000 pension projection of £2,000 a year seems low.
But it may be based on him taking a large cash lump sum from his pension, or early retirement, for example.
A rough rule of thumb to calculate how much a private pension could produce in income is around 4 per cent. This is £4,800 a year in his case.
If he continues paying the same percentage of salary into his workplace pension and retires at age 67, this should generate over £1,200 a year in retirement.
Together with his private pension he should hit his target. However, if he plans to retire before the age of 67, he’ll need to set more aside.
He’ll also need more if he wants to take a large lump sum out. But if he intends to downsize to a smaller property, this may help close the gap.
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