Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/242898 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Series/Report no.: 
IFS Working Paper No. W20/39
Publisher: 
Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), London
Abstract: 
We examine the extent to which owner-occupiers in their 50s and 60s change their private pension saving when they complete repayment of the mortgage on their primary residence. Using panel data from a household survey, the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, we identify those who completed repayment of their mortgage as anticipated two years prior. Despite mortgage expenditures falling by over £200 per person on average, there is little resulting change in average pension saving. This is because only a small minority of individuals react - the probability of an individual increasing their monthly pension saving by more than £150 increases by only 5 percentage points on completing repayment of a mortgage. This suggests that if policymakers wish to influence behaviour in order to increase private pension saving, interventions targeted at those completing their mortgage repayment could be a tractable approach. Such individuals would be able to increase pension saving while maintaining spending at recent levels.
JEL: 
D14
D15
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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