Wrightson said the statistics were a wake-up call for people who were young and middle-aged.
“NZ super is predicated on you either having a mortgage-free home or having affordable social housing, and both of those models of course themselves are under considerable stress at the moment.”
She said that policy changes around superannuation such as proposed increases in age eligibility would “hurt” women and minority groups the most.
That was because those people gather less retirement savings over their lifetime because of the gender pay gap and equity issues, Wrightson said.
– RNZ