Latest / Best of Business / Samantha Barrass: FMA chief executive on the decrease in Kiwi workers contributing to their KiwiSavers

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Samantha Barrass: FMA chief executive on the decrease in Kiwi workers contributing to their KiwiSavers · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks EDB. Follow
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  Speaker 2: The number of people contributing to Kiwi Saver has declined
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  Speaker 2: for the first time this year. Thirty percent of working
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  Speaker 2: age key We Saver members are now not putting money
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  Speaker 2: in now that was only twenty percent fifteen years ago.
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  Speaker 2: Samantha Barriss is the chief executive of the Financial Markets Authority. Hey, Samantha, Hi, Heather.
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  Speaker 2: That seems to me like that would be directly linked
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  Speaker 2: to the cost of living problem that we have at
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  Speaker 2: the moment. Do you think it is.
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  Speaker 3: It's certainly a very strong contributing factor. There are three
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  Speaker 3: reasons why people aren't contributing even though they are of
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  Speaker 3: working age. The first is one that's enduring, which is
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  Speaker 3: those who take time out for parenting duties to be
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  Speaker 3: with their children. But the other two are related to
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  Speaker 3: the economic times. The first is they're unemployed, which increases
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  Speaker 3: in difficult economic times, and the second is saving suspensions
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  Speaker 3: when kiwis who are under difficult circumstances are needing to
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  Speaker 3: make choices between do they contribute to keysaver, do they
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  Speaker 3: put food on the table, do they pay their mortgage,
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  Speaker 3: do they get the car fixed? So though you know
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  Speaker 3: other other reasons so directly related to the difficult economic times.
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  Speaker 2: Once people opt out, though, do they do they even
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  Speaker 2: necessarily come back in.
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  Speaker 3: The challenge And this is something that the kisaver providers
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  Speaker 3: need to really lean into, but we all need to
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  Speaker 3: lean into it as well. Is to go back to
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  Speaker 3: those who have suspended their contributions on a regular basis
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  Speaker 3: and encourage them, encourage them to increase the contributions that
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  Speaker 3: they are or to kind of go back in and
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  Speaker 3: start contributing again. And that is that that's a very
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  Speaker 3: important flex point. So yes, kiwisaver has been built to
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  Speaker 3: withstand the longer term ups and downs in the economic cycle.
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  Speaker 3: The critch point is that you're coming out of a
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  Speaker 3: down cycle to be communicating really regularly with your members
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  Speaker 3: to encourage them to come back into it again.
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  Speaker 2: Samantha, thank you so much, Samantha Barriss, Chief executive of
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  Speaker 2: the FMA.
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