Retire the Gap, a new campaign described as a ‘social experiment’, is investigating how people make decisions about their retirement and seeks to uncover behavioural patterns and social influences often missed by conventional research.
The campaign, established and built by proposition leader Femi Adigun is self-funded and includes a digital platform. The platform is structured around three steps: “check it, calculate it, and close it”. Participants build their lifestyle, calculate pension needs and explore future potential courses of action.
The platform draws on behavioural science insights to explore why people engage, or fail to engage, with financial and social planning initiatives. Although the campaign only launched three weeks ago, early data results suggest the experiment is effective in raising awareness, with 100 per cent of participants reporting greater awareness of their pensions and 80 per cent saying they would consider changing behaviour, whether by reviewing pensions annually or adjusting contributions. Adigun said as the campaign was in its early stages, there wasn’t yet sufficient data to show the percentage of people who ultimately change their savings behaviour.
Adigun notes that the gamification elements encourage engagement with participants, typically completing the first step 100 per cent, with many adjusting their answers as they progress. But early testing found a drop-off at step two, which he attributes to the “shock factor” of people confronting their retirement reality.
He says: “It’s natural for some people to drop off, but that’s part of the learning. We’ll keep testing what works and refining our approach.”
A core aim of the initiative is to address gaps in conventional research. Adigun says: “Many surveys don’t really capture the people who need pension support the most. They take a sample of 100 people from a minority group or a specific demographic and then extrapolate. That misses the nuances. I’d love to run a year-long study to really understand how different cultures approach these issues.”
The campaign highlights disparities in retirement planning, including lost pensions, women retiring with less, carers receiving only part of what they should, many self-employed people without pensions and even wider gaps among ethnic minorities. Adigun is aiming to address these challenges by bringing “pensions out of the boardroom” and onto social media, providing bite-sized, culturally relevant content on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.
He explains: “I wanted to break down pensions in ways people actually share, such as short videos and bite-sized content.”
The campaign also emphasises personalising retirement expectations, with early focus groups showing that participants often selected a “comfortable” retirement but had widely varying ideas of what that meant in practice.
Adigun notes: “Comfortable means different things for everyone, even generationally; some want to care for grandchildren rather than spend in other ways.”
The initiative, which combines behavioural insights, culturally aware design, gamification and social media engagement, aims to inform more inclusive policies and practical strategies around pension planning, social care and housing, which is a huge challenge for the younger generation.
Adigun adds: “Retire The Gap, the check it, calculate it, close it campaign is about provoking awareness and reflection, and empowering people to understand that they can do something different.”
