Pension Awareness Day: Supporting the Elderly in Their Retirement
The number of individuals finding themselves providing for elderly relatives in their retirement has grown in recent years, along with life expectancy.
Supporting your elderly relatives can involve everything from simply assisting them in requestion their state pension and benefits to applying for local government financing for care facilities. It could even be helping them to downsize their home or just providing them with care in their (or your) own home.
As Pension Awareness Day arrives, we thought we’d give you a few little helpers in this blog post. We’ll answer questions you may have regarding pension awareness, like what it is and how you can help support your elderly relatives.
What is Pension Awareness?
Pension Geeks started Pension Awareness Day in 2014 as a campaign to spread the word about how crucial it is to save adequate money for retirement. Since then, the 15th of September has been designated as Pension Awareness Day.
Every year for one week in September, the pensions sector gets together to offer free seminars, webinars, and clinics to educate employers and pension savers on pensions. This may also be known as Pension Awareness Live.
The Pension Awareness campaign emphasises the significance of saving for retirement and how elderly individuals can get the retirement that they want.
Because the truth is, few people under the age of 50 are aware of their pension amounts, the investments they have made, or even the fees that they’re paying. Things that can put may at risk of having unfavourable consequences.
Work is still ongoing now, and more needs to be done really, to get individuals interested in their pensions. That’s why Pension Awareness Day and other similar programmes are so great – they’re a wonderful first step in that direction.
What’s The Purpose of The Pension Awareness Campaign?
This campaign arms members and reps with the information they need to make the best choices in regard to their futures.
The goal was to raise awareness about the country’s inadequate retirement savings and to bring together employers, enterprises, and the government to discuss creative ideas and work together so that they could increase retirement saving participation.
The existence of the campaign was so that participants would be encouraged to begin considering their retirement properly. By educating representatives, they’re able to counsel members and provide them with the information they need in order to comfort and reassure them of their next steps in life once they’ve finished working.
Not only that but this campaign has been increasing individuals’ knowledge and assurance regarding their pensions. People will feel more confidence about their pension funds with improved financial education and awareness, which will encourage better retirement outcomes.
Preparing for Retirement
As you get closer to retirement, you should think about preparation for a lot of things. To be sure that your future income can enable you to live the lifestyle you desire, it’s a good idea to start by examining your finances.
Once you retire, you’ll undoubtedly need to adjust to a different arrangement of income and spending because it’s likely that you’ll have less money to live on. Making a retirement budget may be a good solution here, where you can break down potential future spendings into essential and non-essential.
Your essential spendings will be everyday things that you need to cover basic living . So food shop bills as well as household bills like electric and gas. Don’t forget that any day-to-day travel like hopping on a bus to the supermarket is also essential.
Therefore, non-essential is everything else. The money saved for a rainy day, so to speak. If you wanted to eat out, go on holiday, or do anything leisure-related, this is the budget for it.
Finances aren’t the only thing that should be considered when preparing for retirement. Perhaps things that aren’t really factored in like the loss of a routine and the potential loss of work relationships. Both of these things can be harmful to the wellbeing of the retiree.
And it’s completely understandable. Retirement is stressful, scary, and maybe overwhelming.
How Can I Support My Elderly Relatives?
It’s not always easy helping out family members with their life events whilst also trying to navigate your own.
Many retirees have to choose between caring for their ageing parents and providing financial support for their children (and grandchildren). So we’ve put together some pointers to help you with supporting your family members whilst they are in retirement.
Financial Advisor Visit
If any family members ask for help with money, perhaps think about teaching them about it instead. Bring a member of your family with you to visit a financial advisor so they can learn more about setting money aside for the future. They’ll also learn more about budgeting and saving.
It’s a great chance for them and could even aid in helping them develop sound financial practices.
Include Them
You can keep up with each other’s lives and activities by inviting family members around frequently. It provides an opportunity to discuss worries, find solutions, and also just offer company to your relative who could be finding retirement quite lonely – especially if they’re experiencing it alone.
Travelling with family can be a rather satisfying way to spend money during retirement. Spend some time with your elderly relatives – whether they’re your parents or grandparents – by planning a weekend getaway or a family outing.
It doesn’t matter whether it’s a brand new place or somewhere you’ve been going together for years, the point is that the retired person will be surrounded by family.
A family vacation is the perfect opportunity to catch up and make experiences that will be long-lasting.
Instil Good Behaviours
A technique to assist you if you’re providing care for elderly parents is to concentrate on their general wellbeing. Verify that the people you care about are eating healthily, exercising frequently, and remaining active.
Helping them to get the nourishment and medical care they may require is a preventative strategy to avoid more serious issues down the road which could cost more money.
Family Annexe
Please feel free to contact us at Family Annexe, we are an incredibly friendly bunch!
We can be reached on 0330 1332 668, our office hours are Monday through Friday, from 9AM – 5PM. Alternatively, you can email us at info@familyannexe.com.
We’ll be delighted to assist you with everything from planning to pricing, and we’ll answer any questions you have ASAP!
In the meantime, why not request a brochure? They include every one of our annexe models, and you can choose between owning a physical or digital copy.
Oh, did we mention that they are free? (Because they are!)
