What is Pension Awareness Day?
Pension Awareness Day is a yearly campaign, dedicated to promoting the importance of pensions. Saving for retirement is one of our greatest financial priorities, especially as life expectancy is growing and retirements are likely to last longer.

This annual event is an excellent opportunity to spare a thought as to whether your current pension contribution is sufficient, and what you could do to ensure you are better supported when it comes to your retirement.

The connection between mental health and money
What is financial wellbeing? Financial wellbeing is about having a sense of security that you have enough money to meet your needs. It’s about being in control of your day-to-day finances and having the financial freedom to make choices that allow you to enjoy life. It can sometimes feel like the world revolves around money. Whether that’s true to your experience or not, it’s undeniable that money can play a central role in our lives, which can have a huge impact on our mental wellbeing.

How we support colleagues at IC24
From income losses to debt, money worries are one of the driving factors for many people’s mental health. Here at IC24, the wellbeing of our colleagues is at the heart of everything we do. As part of our new Wellbeing Strategy, we focus on financial wellbeing to ensure that our people have a sense of financial security, control and confidence in their current and future finances. We support colleagues with retirement planning through signposting pension information and offering phased retirement through part-time working where appropriate.

As well as focusing on pensions and retirement, we also ensure that there is financial support through advances in times of hardship, and ongoing access to debt counselling via our Employee Assistance Programme. Alongside these initiatives, we continue to ensure that IC24 remains a financially stable organisation.

The importance of preparing and saving for your retirement 
Most people are not financially prepared for retirement, as it’s easy to focus on immediate expenses rather than looking to the future. It’s important to start planning early to ensure you’re making the best choices to suit your circumstances. Here are a couple of tips to consider when planning:

Consider what your living costs will be during retirement – Drawing up a budget of your expected costs in retirement can help to give you a greater sense of control, and alert you to whether your current pension contributions and savings are in line with these figures.
Have an idea of when you want to retire – There isn’t a wrong or right answer when it comes to retirement age and can differ from person to person. There is no longer a fixed age, however, you’ll need to be in a secure financial position to fund your retirement years before you give up work.
Tracking down your pension pots – It’s important to track down all the different pension schemes you’ve paid into, so you can be sure you’re claiming everything you’re entitled to in retirement.

Further support and advice
Whether you’re supporting someone with a money problem or have one yourself, having access to advice and support is crucial. Please see the below resources for further support:
MIND
Money Helper UK