Almost one-third of 25-44 year-olds have received no form of correspondence from any of their pension providers, new research has found.

A survey of 2,000 consumers by OnePoll found that despite the introduction of workplace pensions, provider correspondence was still very low.

Post was found to be preferred by customers for pensions communications, despite all other sectors looking to move to online correspondence.

However, a third of consumers say that online chat functions will be their preferred method of communication with their service providers over the next five years.

Opus Trust Marketing chief executive, Rob Alonso, said: “Financial service providers may find that customers prefer to use traditional methods today, but the message from this report is clear: consumers value customer correspondence and they are embracing new technology and channels, but there is no one-size-fits-all communications strategy.

“Regardless of sector, consumers each have individual preferences and organisations must ensure they offer customers a choice of channels to enable them to customise their communications.”

Furthermore, the survey found that 80 per cent of consumers file away “at least one type of communication”, such as a pension statement, as it is less disposable than direct mail.

In October, the Simpler Annual Statement was been unveiled by Pensions Minister Guy Opperman at the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association annual conference.

Available online or on paper in just two pages, the statement illustrates the amount of the employer and employee contributions, the tax relief value and the total amount of money in the scheme.

The statement signposts readers to more detailed information, such as costs and charges, that can be available online.

Opperman said: “There has been a problem under successive governments, successive regulations, and successive organisations, that pensions have been inaccessible. It has been complex, difficult to grasp and people have not engaged with them in a way that all of us would have liked to have happened. There are a multitude of reasons for that but i think that is changing.”

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