Kiwis willing to trade to keep pension age down

Almost 1300 New Zealanders across all demographics were surveyed by Otago University to examine their preferences over aspects of retirement policy including  the NZ Super amount, age of eligibility, means-testing, willingness to increase current taxes to pay for the pension, and willingness to increase taxes on future generations to pay for the pension.

Two other aspects of retirement policy related to savings, comprising desirability of accumulated savings and the importance of saving flexibility.

The research replicates a study done in 2014 to see whether attitudes to retirement income settings have changed. Respondents were asked for their preferences on two scenarios with different combinations of two criteria (or aspects) of a choice, such as keeping the age at 65 and paying more tax now or moving the age to 67 and not paying more tax now. The results are ranked in each of the seven features by area of importance.

The three highest-ranked criteria still relate to means-testing, future taxes rates, and the age of eligibility.