Since April, it has been possible to automatically contribute 6% and 10% of income to KiwiSaver, on top of 3%, 4% and 8%.

In the three months since, 6% of 1,000 people surveyed by ASB had chosen to make a change.

ASB head of KiwiSaver Aidan Vince said he expected that to continue.

But he said those who were shifting to the new rates were people who were already more engaged with KiwiSaver. “It seems that people who were doing 4% have gone to 6% and people who were doing 8% have gone to 10%. They were already doing a bit better.”

People who were only contributing 3% were likely to have stayed with that and to be in conservative funds as well, he said.

But he said there was more discussion happening about KiwiSaver, and more people were thinking about retirement and what they might need to save.

“Over the last few years, we’ve seen a trend towards New Zealanders who are engaged with their KiwiSaver looking to invest more, however we’re still seeing the number of respondents in the default 3% rate sitting stubbornly at around 38-39%,” he said.

The results showed the proportion of people who were saving more than 6% of their income had increased from 39% last quarter to 41% this quarter.

Asked how they had calculated how much they would need for retirement, 25% of those surveyed said they had settled on this number after advice from friends or family, while 16% had estimated or guessed and a further 16% had based this on information picked up from media. Another 11% had asked their bank and the same number had talked to a financial adviser.