Precarious employment and pension planning

This collaborative studentship between the University of Manchester and NEST investigates the pension planning of precarious workers, providing new and urgently required sociological insights into how this growing segment of the population is managing an increasingly privatised and individualised pension system. Private and workplace pensions have historically been provided in the UK by large employers in unionised sectors. However recent government reforms over the period 2012 - 2018 have made provision of workplace pensions compulsory for almost all employees. Although a new market has grown in this sector, a national scheme - NEST - is available to any employer wishing to use it. NEST is a trust-based scheme which now has over 7 million members, and it is anticipated that more than 15 million UK employees will be members of NEST at some point. Median earnings for NEST employees are just £18,500 per annum well below the national average. NEST and many other major providers in these new lower income pension markets have identified the need for well-designed, robust, in-depth qualitative research that helps them understand the challenges, benefits and pitfalls for their substantial customer base. If the new privatised pension system fails, this will leave millions in poverty in later life, and so designing systems that will work optimally for all social groups has become a matter of social justice and social cohesion, as well as being commercially important for providers.
This proposed study will investigate how precarious workers manage their economic insecurity in the long term through asking the following questions: How do precarious workers on low pay conceptualise money in its different forms? Do people undertake any form of mental accounting as between these forms of money, especially debt versus saving? What is the role of class, socio-economic status, occupational skill level, and education level in influencing financial decision making for precarious workers? How do current employment characteristics such as work, pay or sector, influence financial decision making and pension planning? How important are transitory employment and other insecurities such as housing, as factors? How do individual characteristics interact with workplace, advice, family and partnership contexts to influence financial decision making and pension planning? How do those in precarious employment understand the respective roles of government, employer, financial advisers, themselves and their family and friends in influencing their own financial and pension decisions? How do those in precarious employment embed thinking about their possible pensions into their own life course narratives and identities.
To answer these questions, we aim to conduct semi-structured interviews with 50 - 60 precarious workers in Greater Manchester (GM) operating across the employed and self-employed/gig economy realms. We will aim to interview people earning £12-£20,000 per year, and mostly between the ages of 30 and 45. Data will be transcribed, coded and analysed using a narrative interpretive framework and drawing on theoretical approaches from cultural gerontology including critical lifecourse and gender perspectives. The collaboration will provide insights into the financial services industry's needs for understanding behaviour in this realm that could not be achieved otherwise, giving a unique chance to influence the improvement of long-term financial outcomes for potentially vulnerable groups of people. The collaboration is expecteThe collaboration will provide insights into the financial services industry's needs for understanding behaviour in this realm that could not be achieved otherwise, giving a unique chance to influence the improvement of long-term financial outcomes for potentially vulnerable groups of people. The collaboration is expected to connect the student with numerous stakeholders and networking contacts to take forward in their career.