1/2/2015 – The ‘Shock’ that Awaits Pensioners at Retirement (BBC News)

The next generation of Americans to hit retirement will be ‘shocked’ when they find out how little they have to live on. A former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury warns that the US government is standing idly by. “We need to do something, we’re not doing anything,” she says.

Professor Alicia Munnell, who is now director of Boston College’s Centre for Retirement Research, tells BBC World Service’s In the Balance programme that most Americans’ voluntary 401(k) pension schemes are seriously under-funded. In a new book, Falling Short, she says the only answer is to work longer and save more. But it is part of a bigger global pensions gap between what is needed to fund pensions and what is actually available in private and public pension pots.

Read the full article at BBC News.