Nearly half (46 per cent) of UK adults believe that they will still be working after they reach state pension age, while 7 per cent don’t think that they will ever be able to retire, research from People’s Partnership has revealed.

The survey found that younger savers expected to retire even later, with 13 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds thinking that they will still be working when they are 70 and older.

In addition to this, the survey found that less than a quarter (24 per cent) of non-retired respondents were confident that they would have enough pension savings for them to enjoy the lifestyle they were hoping for in retirement.

This is perhaps unsurprising, as 20 per cent said they did not have any savings or pensions in place and would rely on the state pension in retirement, while nearly a quarter (24 per cent) said they have personal investments or savings for retirement.

Retirement confidence has also fallen in recent years, as the survey found that nearly 4 in ten (39 per cent) said they were less confident about their retirement prospects than they were when the Covid-19 pandemic began in 2020.

Commenting on the findings, People’s Partnership director of policy, Phil Brown, said that it is "clear" that the cost-of-living crisis, and the uncertainty this is causing means that many people are rightly concerned about their retirement prospects.

However, he suggested that building upon the success of automatic enrolment and widening it to more people could help improve financial resilience.

“We know that millions are still not saving enough to maintain their current standard of living in retirement, which is why we agree with calls to increase the minimum auto-enrolment contribution rate from eight per cent to 12 per cent of earnings, as soon as we are through the cost-of-living-crisis," he stated.

In addition to adequacy concerns, research from Hargreaves Lansdown has emphasised the need for proper retirement planning, revealing that one fifth (19 per cent) of people don’t know when they will retire, rising to almost one in four women (23 per cent).

In addition to this, more than one in five (22 per cent) believe they will retire at age 60 or earlier, 38 per cent believe they will retire after the age of 65, while 17 per cent of people aged over 55 have no idea when they will retire.

In light of the findings, Hargreaves Lansdown head of retirement analysis, Helen Morrissey, warned that "it looks like we are playing a game of retirement roulette".

"It’s one thing to keep your options open but another thing altogether to have no plan in place," she stated.

"It's good to have a bit of flexibility in our retirement plans as markets can go up and down and life events affect our finances. However, if you know what you are aiming for and you check in to make sure you are on track then you may just need to tweak your retirement plans as you go, rather than completely overhaul them."

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