KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Pension Industry Association of Jamaica (PIAJ) is seeking a clearer picture of how Jamaicans are preparing for retirement, saying existing data on retirement income and savings is limited or dated.

“There is a lot of discussion taking place around pension reform, increasing pension coverage and retirement security, but we felt that we needed more current information about how Jamaicans are actually saving and thinking about retirement. Some of the data available to us is dated, and we want the conversation and the reforms that come out of it to be informed by people’s present circumstances,” PIAJ President Sanya Goffe told Observer Online.

The National Savings, Retirement Preparedness and Pensioner Welfare Survey will be conducted by Market Research Services Limited (MRSL) over the next three to four months, using a national sample drawn proportionately across all 14 parishes.

While PIAJ has data on participation in formal pension arrangements, Goffe said the association lacks a sufficiently current picture of broader savings behaviour — including how consistently Jamaicans save, what prevents them from saving for retirement, what they expect retirement to look like and how people already in retirement are managing financially.

The study will therefore look beyond pension participation to assess whether Jamaicans’ overall savings are likely to provide adequate financial support in retirement.

“Participation tells us whether someone is in a pension arrangement, but it does not by itself tell us whether that person will have enough income in retirement,” Goffe said. “Someone may have a pension and still have inadequate retirement savings, while someone outside a formal pension arrangement may be saving in other ways. We want to understand that fuller picture.”

The research will also examine whether affordability, irregular income, awareness, trust, product design or competing financial priorities are among the main barriers to retirement saving.

Self-employed and informal workers will receive particular attention because they are less likely to participate in traditional pension arrangements, especially where income is irregular or there is no employer facilitating contributions.

The study will seek to establish how these workers are saving now, the barriers they face and what could make retirement saving more practical for them. The findings could feed into discussions around pension reform, including auto-enrolment, micro-pensions and more flexible retirement savings arrangements.

PIAJ has already been examining the viability of micro-pensions, and Goffe said the research will provide evidence on how Jamaicans earn and save, as well as what they can realistically contribute, before the industry determines which approaches are likely to work in the Jamaican context.

The research could also help pension providers better understand the needs, attitudes and savings behaviour of potential clients.

The findings from the survey are expected to be available by January 2027.

For Goffe, one of the most concerning possible findings would be evidence that younger Jamaicans understand the need to prepare for retirement but believe they cannot afford to do so.

“It would be encouraging to find that people are saving more than the formal pension participation figures suggest, or that there is a strong willingness to save if products and contribution arrangements better reflect how people actually earn and manage their finances,” said Goffe.

— Codie-Ann Barrett