Charity highlights crisis over pensions

14 December 2004 by
Charity highlights crisis over pensions

More than three-quarters (79%) of hotel and restaurant workers have no access to a work pension, and thousands face poverty or working beyond retirement age, according to charity Age Concern.

Research by the charity shows that a third of hospitality workers earning £10,400-£15,600, and a fifth of those earning £15,600-£31,200, have no private pension provision.

Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) spokesman Daniel Mazliah warned: "It is not an exaggeration to say that small businesses, including those in the hotels and catering industries, face a pensions crisis in the coming years.

"The self-employed plough much of their earnings back into their business and often can't afford to contribute to a pension fund. Indeed, entrepreneurs have the lowest level of private pension provision in the country."

The FSB stressed that compulsory contributions were not the answer, however. "Employees should not be forced to save, and we reject outright the call for compulsory employer contributions," he said.

Dave Turnbull, a regional organiser for the T&G union, said the union would obviously like to see a better state pension, but he described the industry as "very poor" in its pension provision.

"Employers need to do a lot more," Turnbull said. "Very few in the industry have pension schemes, even stakeholder schemes. They're doing the bare minimum to scrape by in terms of the law."

The Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email

Start the working day with The Caterer’s free breakfast briefing email

Sign Up and manage your preferences below

Check mark icon
Thank you

You have successfully signed up for the Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email and will hear from us soon!

Jacobs Media is honoured to be the recipient of the 2020 Queen's Award for Enterprise.

The highest official awards for UK businesses since being established by royal warrant in 1965. Read more.

close

Ad Blocker detected

We have noticed you are using an adblocker and – although we support freedom of choice – we would like to ask you to enable ads on our site. They are an important revenue source which supports free access of our website's content, especially during the COVID-19 crisis.

trade tracker pixel tracking