{"id":373519,"date":"2025-08-25T23:30:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T23:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/373519\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T23:30:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T23:30:15","slug":"retirement-savings-gap-emerging-between-self-employed-and-employees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/373519\/","title":{"rendered":"Retirement savings gap emerging between self-employed and employees"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"EDjIObNkNLUzdftixe\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cWithout meaningful reform, we risk seeing hundreds of thousands of people reach retirement without sufficient financial security.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EDjIObNkNLUzdftixe\" style=\"display:none\">This could leave more retirees relying heavily on Government transfers \u2013 such as NZ Super and other benefits \u2013 as well as other public support, Wrightson said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EDjIObNkNLUzdftixe\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cToday\u2019s inaction could become tomorrow\u2019s fiscal burden.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\"Retirement Commissioner Jane Wrightson. Photo \/ Michael Craig\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>Retirement Commissioner Jane Wrightson. Photo \/ Michael Craig<\/p>\n<p class=\"EDjIObNkNLUzdftixe\" style=\"display:none\">According to the 2023 Census, New Zealand has more than 420,000 self-employed individuals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EDjIObNkNLUzdftixe\" style=\"display:none\">However, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/budget-2025-government-saves-128b-in-pay-equity-funnels-money-at-66b-tax-change-to-stimulate-economy\/45YV2CJEVNAA7ACVHNLA7WSLSM\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/budget-2025-government-saves-128b-in-pay-equity-funnels-money-at-66b-tax-change-to-stimulate-economy\/45YV2CJEVNAA7ACVHNLA7WSLSM\/\">recent changes to KiwiSaver announced in this year\u2019s Budget<\/a> could further diminish retirement savings for self-employed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EDjIObNkNLUzdftixe\" style=\"display:none\">From July 1, the Government\u2019s contribution was reduced from 50c for every $1 to 25 cents for every $1 contributed up to $260.72.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EDjIObNkNLUzdftixe\" style=\"display:none\">The report said the policy change will reduce the retirement savings of self-employed KiwiSaver members, as they face the reduction in the Government contribution with no increase in employer contributions to offset this.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EDjIObNkNLUzdftixe\" style=\"display:none\">Hnry\u2019s Sole Trader Pulse survey, commissioned two weeks after the Budget, found 24% of sole traders said they would reduce their KiwiSaver contributions because of Budget 2025 policy changes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EDjIObNkNLUzdftixe\" style=\"display:none\">A further 6% said they would stop contributing to KiwiSaver altogether.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EDjIObNkNLUzdftixe\" style=\"display:none\">James Fuller, Hnry chief executive, said retirement savings must work for all New Zealanders, regardless of how they earn their income.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EDjIObNkNLUzdftixe\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cRight now, we have a two-tier system that favours employees.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EDjIObNkNLUzdftixe\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cSole traders face a very real risk of poverty in retirement unless there is a cross-party consensus and policies that help them save more.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EDjIObNkNLUzdftixe\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cWe hope these findings finally lead the Government and Parliament to take this issue seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EDjIObNkNLUzdftixe\" style=\"display:none\">The report outlined policy options to improve outcomes for the self-employed based on initiatives already in place in other OECD nations, including:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"article__unordered_list\">\n<li>Flexible percentage-of-income contributions; <\/li>\n<li>Enhanced incentives for low-income contributors; <\/li>\n<li>Innovative savings products such as linked emergency and retirement accounts.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"EDjIObNkNLUzdftixe\" style=\"display:none\"><b>Cameron Smith is an Auckland-based business reporter. He joined the <\/b><b>Herald <\/b><b>in 2015 and has covered business and sports. He reports on topics such as retail, small business, the workplace and macroeconomics.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWithout meaningful reform, we risk seeing hundreds of thousands of people reach retirement without sufficient financial security.\u201d This&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373520,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3093],"tags":[5176,25047,51,130682,130680,82709,474,38167,51302,2499,2250,3028,130681,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-373519","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-and","9":"tag-between","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-concerning","12":"tag-emerging","13":"tag-employees","14":"tag-finance","15":"tag-gap","16":"tag-individuals","17":"tag-personal-finance","18":"tag-retirement","19":"tag-savings","20":"tag-selfemployed","21":"tag-uk","22":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115092011457959585","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}