An eight-year study designed to give the Government a clearer idea of individual wealth may not make it any easier to know if people are saving enough because of human error.
The Survey of Family Income and Employment (SoFIE) was set up in 2002 by Statistics New Zealand to interview
a random sample of more than 22,000 people. But Yesterday, Treasury principal adviser Grant Scobie said a clear result could not yet be gained from the research because some of those interviewed appeared to have forgotten about assets like a bach or an investment in a family business between the survey interviews. That meant some people appeared to have made a huge loss or a gain from year to year.
Scobie said the first reaction to the anomalies was to exclude them from the research but it appeared there were too many to do that.
So far the results had only been collated from the first few years and he hoped later data would help clear up some of the anomalies.
Scobie said comparing the total net wealth of those questioned between 2003/04 and 2005/06 showed an average increase in real savings of 16 per cent. When property was taken out of the equation savings grew by 5 to 6 per cent.
He said net wealth appeared to grow as a person got older, peaking at around 45 to 50, before falling back after retirement. When property was taken out those in post-retirement were found to have a decrease in wealth.
Scobie said it was hard to separate out the transient part of a person's wealth - those areas which included an inheritance, loss of money on the stock market, or a forgotten asset.
"When we went to a sample of people in wave two and asked them about their net assets and wealth - some said they forgot to tell us about the bach they owned."
