Essential pensions insights you can’t afford to miss
Pensions reform is accelerating. Workforce expectations are shifting. Retirement is being redefined.
Ahead of the release of REBA’s Future of Pensions Research 2026 – launching on 24 September – REBA highlights the key pension trends and challenges emerging from its Associate Members' latest reports.
Employers need to recognise and act on the pensions disconnect
There is a pension disconnect – 96% of employers believe employees understand and value their workplace pension scheme, but just 39% of employees agree.
This report from Cushon’s Workplace Pension Report 2026, based on surveys of 2,000 employees and 500 HR managers, considers how pensions can influence recruitment, retention and productivity, and what employees really want from a workplace pension.
It outlines four priorities: accessibility, ease of understanding, simplification and personalisation for employers looking to maximise the value of their pension offering.
Read the report.
Pension poverty eases but UK retirement savings shortfall persists
This first part of Scottish Widows’ Retirement Report 2026 focuses on financial pressures, vulnerability and health.
It makes several recommendations, including increasing default pension contributions under auto-enrolment to 12%, introducing an auto-enrolment equivalent for the self-employed, and better decision-making support.
The report also recommends accelerated compatibility between pensions and personal financial products (savings, investments, housing equity) to facilitate better retirement journeys.
Download the full report to find out more about pension poverty and the impact boosting contributions could have in retirement.
Shifting pension reforms require an employer rethink
In Hymans Robertson’s Retirement adequacy: identifying future risks in your workforce report, uses its modelling tools to help employers understand the impact of upcoming pension changes.
Potential changes to pension policy, shifting employee expectations and evolving retirement patterns could have significant implications for employer costs, workforce planning and employee wellbeing.
The insight draws on Hymans Robertson’s Guided Outcomes modelling to help employers understand what these changes could mean. It explores the potential impact of future reforms on pension costs and identifies which groups of employees may be most affected.
Read the report.
Rising health issues and career disruptions drive new demand for flexible pension strategies
Rising ill-health, disrupted career patterns, and growing caring responsibilities are reshaping pension adequacy.
REBA’s Impact of ill-health and career breaks on pension adequacy roundtable report, published in partnership with Aviva, captures firsthand expertise and provides a diverse range of practical strategies, actions and insights that employers are implementing.
The discussion brought together REBA members passionate about workplace financial wellbeing and pensions. It generated a diverse range of practical strategies, actions and insights that employers across various sectors are implementing.
By capturing this collective expertise throughout this report, good practice can be shared with other employers.
Download the report.
The CDC era arrives
The CDC Report 2026 from Gallagher for considers confidence, adoption barriers and routes to adoption for collective defined contribution (CDC) pension schemes in the UK.
The launch of Royal Mail’s CDC scheme, the first of its kind in the UK, and with a developing regulatory framework, has given the market a live model to assess.
For the first time, employers, trustees and advisers can weigh CDC against real design choices rather than principle alone. This comes at a time when defined contribution (DC) adequacy is taking centre stage.
Download the full report to find out why more than three-quarters (76%) of employer respondents are assessing, exploring or expect to explore CDC within three years.
Supplied by REBA Associate Member, REBA
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