The annual Pension Awareness Week roadshows have gone virtual, with the launch of a five-day online event to help people with pensions, money and financial wellbeing.

The annual campaign is run by pensions consultancy Pension Geeks and usually sees the company travel to multiple locations across the UK. It takes place around the official UK Pension Awareness Day on 15^th September.

The five-day virtual event will give people the chance to send live questions to be answered by a ‘Pension Geek’ and can also have retirement planning questions answered in a pre-booked one to one guidance session.

The online platform will also feature a range of videos, blogs, tips and other useful and practical resources. It will remain live for one week after the event, to enable people to view any of the content on demand.

The campaign is being supported by the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS), the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) and the Financial Services Compensation Authority (FSCA).

 MaPS will also be assisting with delivering 1 to 1 guidance sessions.

The 2020 event is sponsored by Aegon. Aegon’s head of pensions, Kate Smith, will run a couple of sessions including one focusing on women in pensions.

Linda Whorlow, managing director of workplace business at Aegon, said:“Pension Awareness Week provides an ideal platform for Aegon, with the expertise of Pension Geeks, to get people thinking about their retirement plans and long-term savings. Reiterating the challenges people might face if they fail to do so.

“This year we’ll be covering some of the current challenges of retirement saving including scams, the gender pension gap and financial wellness.

“Many people simply aren’t engaging with planning for later life and all too often it falls to the bottom of the to-do list. The reality is that unless individuals actively engage with their pension savings, they’re at risk of being entirely unprepared for retirement. This event will focus on those who stand to be reliant on the state pension along with a strong emphasis on women and the inherent biases in the pension system against them.”

Jonathan Bland, head geek at Pension Geeks said:  “The global pandemic presents new challenges for everyone this year and the uncertainty it brings has a particular impact on finances. There’s an even greater need for us to help people with understanding how Covid-19 has affected their pensions and wider money topics, so we’re excited to take the Pension Awareness Campaign digital and reach people in multiple locations around the UK that our campervan might not have made it to.”