Our ever busy Chair, Alec Waugh, has unearthed this overview by IRD of Kiwisaver.

I have paraphrased the summary for brevity and any errors are mine.  Stephen Wealthall

The Link to Executive Summary is HERE and the Link to the full PDF document HERE

• Both employers and providers were generally supportive of how KiwiSaver had been implemented and employers reported that compliance costs were minimal and decreasing over time.
• Membership continues to grow with the rate of growth slowing over time, as expected. In recent years, a small majority of new members have “opted in” rather than be automatically enrolled when changing jobs.
• Up to 56% of members have KiwiSaver deductions taken from their salary and wages and 58% of those members are contributing at the default employee rate of 3%.
• Fewer people are opting out
• 38% of members are making no contributions
• estimated 1/3 of income saved into KiwiSaver is saving not made at the expense of paying off mortgage or other debt.
• it is estimated Kiwisaver has had no effect on asset accumulation.
• A 2010 analysis found that KiwiSaver has provided a stimulus to the financial sector. More recent analysis found that the impact on capital markets was small.
• For the group targeted by the KiwiSaver programme, for each $1 of government spending, the additional savings is estimated to range from $0.20 to $0.38.