Scare tactics don’t work. Left to their own devices, many people are not taking retirement planning anywhere near seriously enough.
So the government - and the pensions industry - should be doing everything they can to nudge and cajole everyone into starting a pension.
Auto-enrolment, which the government is pinning so much hope on, is nowhere near sufficient to solve the problem we are facing, especially when, as happened this week, the minimum salary level is raised.
The entire pensions system needs to be revisited. What we have at present simply cannot accommodate what we need if we are to avoid an unprecedented pensions crisis.
The whole UK pensions industry needs a radical rethink, and now.
John Fox is managing director of Liberty Sipp