Bigger questions to ask of retirement policy: Report

The report, by Michael Chamberlain, co-founder of Superlife, and Michael Littlewood, co-founder of the University of Auckland's Retirement Policy and Research Centre, said it needed to be asked, among other things, whether KiwiSaver was working, whether New Zealand needed the Super Fund, whether superannuation at its current levels was actually unsustainable and whether regulation of financial markets was effective.

They said Retirement Commissioner Diane Maxwell had wasted an opportunity.

“We were very disappointed with the Retirement Commissioner’s 2016 review of retirement income policies. The findings were cloaked in a jokey, cartoon-like presentation on the website of the Commission for Financial Capability and amounted to 34 recommendations and observations with little to no supporting evidence for nearly all of them.”

In her review, completed at the end of last year, Maxwell said the retirement age should increase, people should have to live in New Zealand longer to get the pension, and the minimum contribution to KiwiSaver should increase.