Only half of those in Generation X have a personal pension, according to research by YouGov.

The survey of 3,000 30 to 45 year olds, conducted on behalf of Old Mutual Wealth, reveals the gulf between employees and the self-employed, as 86 per cent of those who are an employee have a pension.

The release of the survey follows comments by Pensions Minister Richard Harrington who at an event last week said the government is going to be looking at how to get more self-employed people saving into a pension, in the upcoming review of auto-enrolment.

“The self-employed are not all people with accountants and IFAs[…]Many self-employed people could now be earning minimum wage, maybe a bit more, but it is complicated,” he reportedly said.

Recently, The Resolution Foundation found there has been a 45 per cent increase in people deemed to be working for themselves since 2001-2002, but they are earning £60-a-week less than their employed peers.

This is reflected in the survey results, which found that many self-employed are saving less than their peers who are employees. Employees save close to £400 per month in total, while the self-employed save about £290 per month. However, they are not unrealistic about their saving habits as 58 per cent say they aren’t preparing sufficiently for their retirement, compared to 45 per cent of those with employers.

The majority of the self-employed (84 per cent) say they aren’t saving or investing because they can’t afford it. Commenting on the survey, Old Mutual Wealth pensions expert Jon Greer said the self-employed who aren’t saving enough are “sleepwalking towards poverty in later life”.

“The government needs to step in and help. Ahead of the Conservative Party conference in October Theresa May ordered a review of employment regulation and practices, but action is also needed. In an ideal world everyone would be auto-enrolled so it is encouraging that the Pensions Minister has said he will see if it is possible to find a mechanism to bring the self-employed into automatic enrolment, but it is unlikely that that will be a quick and easy thing to do,” he said.

“While we are not wholly convinced of the merits of the Lisa, with some amendments it could be more beneficial for this group. For example, it should be accessible from 55, so those who are self-employed can benefit from the government top up. The government could even bring in greater flexibility to the withdrawals for this group given self-employed people are often reluctant to tie up their money and may have times when cashflow is tight.”

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