A double decker bus driven by Pension Geeks has begun a week long tour of the UK today espousing the benefits of saving for retirement.
The vehicle will be making its way around the major cites for Pension Awareness Day, which takes place tomorrow. The tour will start in Edinburgh and will stop off in Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham and London along the way.

The campaign, created by Yorkshire-based pensions communications firm Pension Geeks and backed by Scottish Widows, aims to encourage providers and employers to use simpler language around pensions and to look for more creative ways to communicate.

According to the organisers, Pension Awareness Day is designed “to promote the importance of saving for the future and to alert the nation that it is not saving enough for retirement”.

They said it was devised in response to concerns that people are not saving enough for their retirement.

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As part of the awareness day, Portal Financial has released its list of top five misunderstandings surrounding pensions.

According to Portal these are:

1. Taxable pension income – Many people don’t understand that the pension income received is assessed against all taxable income for the year.

2. Tax-free cash – Many people think that after taking their 25% tax-free allowance, they can get another 25% tax free next year.

3. Income – Many of those saving for a pension do not realise that they can start taking an income from their pension before they reach state pension age.

4. Transferring out – People do not understand that, depending on their scheme, they may need to transfer out of the pension scheme that they are in in order to release money from it, including tax-free cash.

5. Death benefits – People understand that certain annuities can provide a pension to a spouse when they die, but are often unaware that drawdown and unused funds can also be left to beneficiaries.

Jamie Smith-Thompson, managing director of Portal Financial, said: “Despite the increased level of debate around pensions following recent reforms, people are still confused. As an industry, we must find a way of providing clearer guidelines and more comprehensive information. Pensions Awareness Day is a great opportunity to educate the public and encourage them to save.”

Samantha Seaton, managing director at eValue, said: “Far too often saving into a pension is a nice to have rather than a must have because it feels so far away. We have to change how people feel about saving and, by bringing to life the benefit of saving for the long term, motivate people to act today to secure their financial future.

"Being able to enjoy a lifestyle in later life not hugely dissimilar to that of your thirties or forties relies on having a savings plan in place as soon as possible and checking up on it as much as possible. This is why it is so important that the tools and support available are built using the most robust forecasting models available to visualise how savings will deliver a pension income based on investment decisions made today.”

The official campaign website stated: “According to a recent report by the government, almost 12 million people are failing to save enough for their future. This coupled with an increasing ageing population and uncertainty over the changes to the state pension, means that despite auto-enrolment being introduced to the workplace, it is clear there is still a long way to go in equipping people with the tools and information they need to help them save more.”