Less than half (48 per cent) of UK adults with a pension say they ‘care’ about the charges they pay on their pensions, new research from B&CE, provider of The People’s Pension, has revealed.

B&CE contrasted this figure with the 71 per cent of people who reported paying close attention to what they pay a mortgage and the 70 per cent who said they paid close attention to their current bank account.

Of those who said they do not care about what charges they pay on their pension, 18 per cent had not got round to looking into or thinking about what they were paying.

The poll also revealed 16 per cent thought they do not have enough currently saved for charges to make a difference and 14 per cent said they do not believe charges will make a difference to their pension savings when they retire, despite the existence of evidence indicating the opposite.

A further 14 per cent said they trusted that their pension companies’ charges were reasonable, 11 per cent said that pension charges were too complex to understand and 10 per cent said that it was too difficult to find out what charges they pay.

B&CE director of policy, Phil Brown, commented: “This research is further evidence that the average saver doesn’t understand the impact that charges can have on their pension pot.

“At a time when people are naturally watching what they spend, it’s important that consumers are aware of what they are paying for their pension, which is potentially the most valuable asset many people own.

“Total transparency around charges is vital. We’ll be adding charges, in pounds and pence, on our members annual statements this year, and are calling on other providers to do the same.”

The survey also found that low charges were important to more than a quarter of respondents (27 per cent) when it came to one of the top three most important features of a pension, only being beaten by rate of return (36 per cent) and being run by a trusted company (34 per cent).

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