How many South Africans will have to support their parents through retirement

·5 Jul 2017

A large number of South Africans will not be able to support themselves into retirement, according to Old Mutual’s latest Savings and Investment Monitor report.

The report is based on a number of surveys focusing on the savings and investment habits of working metro households in South Africa. The survey is conducted twice a year: every May/June, for the July update, and every September/October for the November update.

Each survey sample comprises 1,000 South African households in the main metropolitan areas of Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth and East London and Bloemfontein. For each update a different sample of 1,000 working households is interviewed.

All respondents are working either in the formal or the informal sectors to ensure that the survey sample is reflective of the country’s working metro population of around 5 million. The comprehensive household income sample ranges from less than R3,000 per month to more than R40,000 per month.

Dependency

One of the key focuses of the report is the level of dependency those surveyed will require after entering retirement. The survey looks at both the dependency expected of children as well as reliance on government for support.

*HH – Household income per month

Sandwhiched

Another major economic stress on South African households is the fact that many South Africans would not only have to support their parents into retirement, but also bring up and support children of their own.

Dubbed the “Sandwhich Generation” by economists, these are traditionally a generation of people, typically in their thirties or forties, responsible both for bringing up their own children and for the care of their ageing parents.