Over a third of employees (39%) do not feel confident they are making the right decisions about their pensions, despite almost all employers believing their workers understand and value their workplace pensions, according to research from Cushon.

The findings come as the industry moves towards guided retirement, where schemes will provide a default retirement solution.

Research carried out for the firm’s Workplace Pension Report 2026 among 500 HR managers and 2,000 employees showed a significant divergence between the efforts made by employers to promote pension guidance, and the confidence felt by employees in the management of retirement savings.

Over four in five (85%) employers said they promoted pension guidance or support services, while 96% thought their employees understood and valued their workplace pension.

However, 42% of employees said they would be more engaged with their pension if they simply understood it better, while 39% said they were not confident they are making the right decisions and 38% had not yet taken any meaningful action with their scheme, such as setting a retirement age or adjusting contributions.

Cushon managing director, Troy Clutterbuck, said: "The success of automatic enrolment has shown the power of inertia in helping millions of people save for retirement. When it comes to investing, default solutions have delivered positive outcomes by removing the need for constant decision making.

"Although guided retirement needs to provide solutions for those who don’t engage, we cannot rely on inertia. To achieve the best outcomes, pension savers need to engage at key moments, way before and in the run up to retirement, and feel confident enough to take action.

"We don’t need savers to be actively managing their pension every day, but they do need enough understanding and confidence to take action when it matters most. Engagement should be targeted at key milestones, helping members navigate important decisions such as consolidating pension pots, planning retirement income and understanding their options.

"Guided retirement requires, at the very least, what might be described as ‘informed inertia’. People who end up in a default solution must at least know that this is what they have."

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