Around a fifth of workers wish they had started their retirement saving and planning earlier, according to a new study from Hargreaves Lansdown.

The provider surveyed 2,000 people in May and found that 22 per cent of them "regret" not "getting to grips" with their pensions when they were younger, rising to 27 per cent among the 35- to 54-year-old cohort.

In addition to this, 12 per cent told Hargreaves Lansdown that they wished they had understood their different retirement options better, while one fifth (19 per cent) wished they had boosted their contributions.

In contrast, only 44 per cent of respondents said they have no retirement regrets.

Commenting on the findings, Hargreaves Lansdown's head of retirement analysis, Helen Morrissey, said it is "no surprise" that over half of people have some form of pension saving remorse.

“Retirement feels like a long way away for most of us — something we will deal with later when we’ve sorted all the issues we face in the here and now," she continued.

"However, it doesn’t go away, instead it remains a nagging sensation at the back of your mind telling you [that] you should be doing more and that you’ve left it too late."

She added that it is, however, never too late to make a difference to your retirement, explaining that, if people can afford to boost contributions, then they can still significantly improve how much they end up with.

"Those in the 35-54 age group who worry about not getting to grips with their retirement earlier still have at least ten years (and possibly as many as thirty years) ahead of them to get a plan in place," she said.

Morrissey also noted that over-55s are the most likely group to have no regrets about retirement planning, with 53 per cent of this cohort saying they were satisfied with their pension saving plans.

"This could be because of careful retirement planning by many in this group, but other factors such as being more likely to have a defined benefit pension will also have played a big part," she added.

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