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Retirement plans have been thrown up in the air for millions of older workers, who have had to grapple with waves of redundancies while watching their pensions shrink in size as stock markets fall.
Mark Cordones, 58, from London, said £200,000 had been wiped off his pension this year, as his life savings plummeted from £620,000 to £420,000 during the stock market crash in March. The income generated from the investments fell by £7,000 this year and his Isa shrunk by 40pc – a loss of £40,000.
“It’s devastating. It has been a very dark period. I have tried to reconfigure my pension fund from scratch,” he said. Mr Cordones reacted to the loss by cutting his investments in the J O Hambro UK Equity Income fund and the Chelverton UK Equity Income fund, which he said had “truly appalling” performances.
The Chelverton fund has lost 30.2pc this year, while the J O Hambro fund is down 35.8pc. Both have performed worse than the benchmark, which was down 24.7pc. He said: “I got the shock of my life. They were so bad.”
A spokesman at J O Hambro said the firm was “very disappointed” with the fund’s performance. A Chelverton spokesman said it had been “caught in the eye of the perfect storm” alongside a majority of its peers.
Confidence levels for retirement
Confidence levels for retirement
Mr Cordones said the value of his pension had not bounced back and that he had invested in a mixture of trusts via Interactive Investor, a fund shop, in the hope it would regain some value. The former chartered accountant lost his job in recent years and has been tutoring. However, he lost much of his work during the pandemic and has dipped into his pension pot.
He said: “There is a lot of age discrimination. I feel like I’ve been thrown on the rubbish heap of unemployment. You are finished if you’re made redundant over the age of 55.”
An estimated 5.8 million people over 55 feel a sense of job insecurity due to the pandemic, according to pension group Standard Life, equating to four in 10 Brits over the age of 55.
John Tait, of the retirement advice arm of Standard Life, said: “Those nearing retirement are understandably feeling particularly concerned about job security. But our research and experience has found that, for some, a redundancy could provide an opportunity to change or even accelerate their retirement plans.”
The pandemic could mean there is no chance of ever retiring for some people, according to Becky O’Connor, of Interactive Investor. She said: “Thousands of pounds wiped off a retirement pot is not earned back easily, particularly for those who had already given up jobs or hours in anticipation of retiring."
A fall in the value of a pension becomes a problem if you give up work and are suddenly dependent on your pot, Ms O’Connor said.
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