The UK’s pensions “social contract is under strain”, with nearly a third (31 per cent) of working-age adults at risk of falling below the minimum retirement living standard, according to research from the Fabian Society.

Its Talking Pensions Solidarity report, based on a Survation survey of 4,000 UK adults, used a pension calculator that incorporated respondents’ existing savings, contributions, expected defined benefit (DB) income, and other sources of retirement income.

The report found widespread concern about retirement provision, with 64 per cent of respondents believing the government was doing “too little” to ensure people like them would have enough to live on in retirement.

Meanwhile, 70 per cent said the government should ensure every pensioner could afford the basics required for an acceptable quality of life, while 77 per cent rated achieving this as “very important”.

Fabian Society senior researcher, Sasjkia Otto, argued in the report that the pensions “social contract” was under strain as low living standards and inequalities persisted both within and between generations.

The findings also highlighted uncertainty among savers about their own retirement prospects.

Fewer than half of respondents said they knew a “great deal” or “fair amount” about how the pensions system worked.

Among 22 to 60-year-olds projected by the study to fall below the minimum retirement living standard, 19 per cent nevertheless believed they were on track.

Conversely, 41 per cent of those projected to meet or exceed the standard thought they would fall short.

The Fabian Society said this suggested perceptions of retirement security could play an important role in shaping attitudes towards pension reform.

There was also substantial support for broadening workplace pension saving.

The survey found that 79 per cent supported extending AE to lower-income workers, while 77 per cent backed bringing self-employed people into an AE-style system.

Among self-employed respondents, 70 per cent supported automatic enrolment, while 56 per cent of those who supported it believed organisations that engage self-employed workers should also make pension contributions.

The survey also revealed that 44 per cent of respondents believed they could afford to save more into a pension than they currently did, including 53 per cent of those contributing at the AE default level.

Employers were also viewed as having a greater role to play, with 89 per cent saying employers should contribute to pensions for low-paid workers.

Of these, 42 per cent thought employers should contribute even where the employee did not.

On the state pension, 57 per cent selected a level above the current full new state pension when asked what they thought it should be worth.

However, the polling suggested support for changing how it is uprated, with 68 per cent saying the state pension should increase at the same rate as earnings, compared with 27 per cent who thought it should rise faster.

When asked specifically about the Triple Lock, 55 per cent favoured replacing it with a different mechanism, although the report found significant generational differences, with younger respondents more supportive of replacement than older groups.

The Fabian Society said the findings pointed to a possible route to a new pensions consensus based on stronger protection for those at risk of low retirement incomes alongside a broader sharing of responsibility between individuals, employers and the state.

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