What is wrong with the P word?
I wasn’t too surprised to discover that the most read article on the Employee Benefits website this past week was ‘Top 10 pension jargon expressions to avoid’. The topic seems to have hit a cord, at least on Twitter (partly because of the great infographic).
The one jargon word we did not list in the article was the word ‘pension’ itself. We have already been criticised for that.
However, I wonder if this omission is valid.
After all, that is what it is and most people know, broadly, what a pension is. Even if they don’t know their state pension from their personal one and a final salary from a defined contribution.
For dictionary lovers, here is what Oxford Dictionaries says ‘pension’ means: late Middle English (in the sense ‘payment, tax, regular sum paid to retain allegiance’): from Old French, from Latin pensio(n-) ‘payment’, from pendere ‘to pay’. The current verb sense dates from the mid 19th century.
So I don’t see the word itself as jargon. It is the sentiment attached to it that is the stumbling block.
Pensions are difficult (to save for, understand how they work), boring (all that other jargon and complicated investment stuff), and not trusted (blame the industry and expectations that go beyond what people have saved for).
We can call pensions what we like, but unless we can make pensions seem like a good deal for everyone we will continue to hit a mental block.
Auto-enrolment has already started to change attitudes among some as they begin they feel they being proactive about saving.
So let’s hear it for pensions!
Debi O’Donovan
Editor
Employee Benefits
Twitter: @DebiODonovan
Over the years I have worked with clients who have wanted to avoid using the word pension in communication projects because it is a turn-off for their employees but they have always gravitated back to it. Any alternative to the word pension is obscure or inappropriate.Most employees have some idea, however vague, of what the word pension means.
However in my experience the word ‘annuity’ is often completely misunderstood, even by older staff at a senior management level. It is a technical word that could easily be dropped and replaced with three words, pension in payment, or, one word, PIP.