The stats on the South African savings landscape are both shocking and saddening.<\/p>\n
Well before the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns brought many businesses and families to their knees, the financial position of the average South African was precarious at best.<\/p>\n
While commentators in the media and government focus mainly on the unemployment rate (currently at 32.5%9(1)<\/strong><\/em> according to data from the October-December 2020 quarter), even those who are employed struggle to make their money stretch through the month.<\/p>\n According to research by fintech platform PayCurve, almost 80%(2)<\/strong> <\/em>of South Africans take out expensive unsecured loans to cover their monthly financial obligations, as reported by BusinessLive. Household debt makes up 73.7%(3)<\/strong><\/em> of disposable income.<\/p>\n 84%(4)<\/strong><\/em> of people surveyed needed money before the next payday. And only 6%(5)<\/strong> <\/em>of retirees can afford to do so \u201ccomfortably\u201d, according to the Alexander Forbes Member Watch 2020 analysis.<\/p>\n These statistics show that, left to their own devices, the average South African struggles to manage their finances.<\/p>\n Interestingly, when the employer offers savings and financial planning assistance, savings rates improve dramatically.<\/p>\n Research from the United States shows that people are 15 to 18(6)<\/strong><\/em> times more likely to save when their employer has set up a workplace fund.<\/p>\n The same trend seems to hold true for South Africa, where roughly 90%(7)<\/strong><\/em> of retirement savings are in workplace schemes.<\/p>\n Employers can therefore make a huge impact on their employees\u2019 financial well-being by requiring compulsory saving.<\/p>\n Matching employee contributions and offering complementary services such as financial advice and planning also help significantly.<\/p>\n Employee benefit programmes go beyond offering a savings product and financial advice.<\/p>\n Medical aid, life, critical illness, funeral and disability cover, and counselling for mental and emotional distress, may all be included in the package.<\/p>\n These are designed to assist employees to manage their personal and financial well-being to live comfortably within their means.<\/p>\n Often, these employee benefit programmes are the only access people have to a savings scheme, financial advice, or medical cover.<\/p>\n This is why it is critical for employers to select good benefits that form a consolidated package that can look after their people.<\/p>\n At Alexander Forbes, we partner with employers to personalise their employee benefit offering with solutions tailored to their needs.<\/p>\n We offer these at fees for institutions when employees join through their employer.<\/p>\n We also provide training and support throughout employees\u2019 working life \u2013 and beyond \u2013 to help them achieve financial well-being throughout their life.<\/p>\n Now, that\u2019s something they can count on.<\/p>\n (1) https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-safrica-economy-unemployment\/south-africas-unemployment-rate-jumps-to-new-record-high-idUSKBN2AN0S1<\/a><\/strong> The stats on the South African savings landscape are both shocking and saddening.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":479713,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10459],"tags":[6280],"class_list":["post-479705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry-news","tag-alexander-forbes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479705"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":480191,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479705\/revisions\/480191"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Employers can help<\/h3>\n
\n
\n(2) https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/426406\/heres-how-many-south-african-rely-on-loans-to-make-it-to-the-end-of-the-month\/<\/a><\/strong>
\n(3) https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/426406\/heres-how-many-south-african-rely-on-loans-to-make-it-to-the-end-of-the-month\/<\/a><\/strong>
\n(4) https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/426406\/heres-how-many-south-african-rely-on-loans-to-make-it-to-the-end-of-the-month\/<\/a><\/strong>
\n(5) https:\/\/mg.co.za\/business\/2020-11-01-sa-has-a-retirement-savings-crisis\/<\/a><\/strong>
\n(6) Alexander Forbes Value of Group Arrangements Consolidation, November 2020.
\n(7) Alexander Forbes Value of Group Arrangements Consolidation, November 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"