Pension anxiety and Generation NERD: why young people fear they will have to work forever

Retirement should be a milestone, but for many young people it has become a source of unease: an income that may not be enough, an age of leaving work that feels ever further away, a goal that is hard to reconcile with rent, everyday expenses and salaries that leave little room for saving. The expression Generation NERD, an acronym for Never Ever Retiring Demographic, was used by People’s Pension to describe this lack of confidence. It does not identify a new demographic category, nor does it certify that young people will not retire: it captures the feeling of those who see their pension future as so uncertain that they give up thinking about it.

The most delicate point is precisely this shift from concern to inertia, because thinking there is nothing one can do can lead people to postpone the decisions that are still within reach. However, blaming the problem solely on poor financial education would be reductive: someone struggling to pay for housing or alternating periods of work and unemployment does not have the same opportunities as someone with a stable income. A serious reading of pension anxiety must therefore bring together saving capacity, employment continuity and knowledge of the available tools, avoiding both the promise of a trouble-free pension and the opposite message, that everything is already lost.

Polls measure different fears

The survey commissioned by People’s Pension from Opinium, carried out between 29 August and 2 September 2025 on a representative sample of 2,000 British adults, found that 47% of Gen Z respondents aged 18 to 27 are not actively engaged with their pension; 12% think it is pointless to take an interest because they believe they will never be able to stop working. The release also notes that 36% of young people believe the way the financial sector communicates the benefits of retirement saving is ineffective. These are indications of attitudes toward planning, not an estimate of the likelihood that the state pension will be abolished, and they cannot be automatically transferred to the Italian population.

In the United States, Northwestern Mutual’s Planning & Progress Study 2026 paints a picture that is less uniform than the idea of an entirely disillusioned generation suggests: 58% of Gen Z respondents expect to be financially prepared for retirement, down from 63% in 2025, while 45% fear they may outlive their savings. In Italy, the summary of Deloitte’s Global Gen Z and Millennial Survey 2025 reports that about six in ten young people live paycheck to paycheck and fear a retirement that will be financially unsatisfactory. The questions, samples and pension systems are different: these results do not form a homogeneous international ranking, but they do show how future security depends on present-day economic fragility.

Supplementary pensions and young people: the data must be read carefully

For Italy, the COVIP report for 2025 shows that members under 35 account for 20.8% of those enrolled in supplementary pension schemes, up from 17.5% in 2020. This percentage describes the age composition of members: it does not mean that only 20.8% of all Italian young people have a pension fund, nor does it allow one to conclude that four out of five young people do not. To measure how widespread these schemes are among the under-35s, the number of members must be compared with the population or the labour force in the same age group, specifying the denominator used. This distinction prevents a correct figure from being turned into a baseless statistical alarm.

Supplementary pensions can help build additional income, but membership alone does not guarantee an adequate outcome: the amount and continuity of contributions, costs, any employer contribution, the investment option chosen and the time available all matter. It is also necessary to understand the rules governing access to capital and benefits, because a pension position is not the same as money freely available for any expense. For those with limited room to manoeuvre, the challenge is to find a sustainable balance between today’s commitments and the future, without taking on unrealistic contributions or choosing products they do not understand simply to ease anxiety.

Financial education must help people make decisions

Valerio Marchetti stresses the need for tools that speak the language of younger generations: school-based education, podcasts and clear digital content. He says the role of advice is to listen to the individual and build a path that is consistent with their priorities: «It is up to us to listen to the person in front of us, respecting their needs and values, to build together a path that takes life goals into account». This is a useful approach if support places understanding at the centre of decision-making and makes the costs, risks and limits of the proposed tools transparent.

Financial literacy does not eliminate an insufficient income, but it can prevent already scarce resources from being used poorly. It means understanding the difference between nominal and real returns, recognising the weight of recurring costs, assessing diversification and knowing that a projection is not a promise. The advice to start early also needs explaining: more years of contributions and compounding can improve the result, but there is no universal rule that says starting at 20 automatically doubles the capital compared with starting at 30. The outcome changes with amounts, returns, costs and continuity; turning an example into a guarantee would be another form of misleading communication.

From fears to a snapshot of one’s position

For those working in Italy, a practical starting point is to check the contributions recorded and use, where available for one’s position, the INPS service La mia pensione futura. The tool makes it possible to simulate the date and amount of the pension on the basis of current legislation, employment history and income, also comparing different scenarios. The estimate of the ratio between the first pension payment and the last salary helps make the possible gap to be filled more understandable, but it does not predict with certainty the rules and career paths of the coming decades. It should be read as a scenario to be updated, especially when work, pay or contribution continuity changes, not as a final verdict on one’s future.

The response to pension anxiety cannot therefore be limited to urging people to subscribe to a product: clear information, properly recorded contributions, incomes that allow saving and a track record that can be checked over time are all needed. The signal is also important for the economic debate, because a generation that cannot imagine future security may change consumption, family choices and its relationship with work. Restoring confidence means making clearer what depends on public policy and what the individual can act on, without shifting all responsibility onto them. Retirement becomes less abstract when the move is from a vague fear to a few decisions that are understandable, sustainable and revisable.