Almost three quarters, 72 per cent, of UK employees believe that they will work past the state pension age, Canada Life has found.

For the second consecutive year, Canada Life has found that 23 million workers plan to remain in employment beyond the age of 65, up from 67 per cent in 2016 and 61 per cent in 2015.

Of those who expect to work past the state pension age, 47 per cent suspect they will be older than 70 when they retire, up from 37 per cent in 2017, while 17 per cent expect to be older than 75. Workers aged 35-44, 27 per cent, were most likely to expect to retire after they turn 75.

When asked the reasons for their suspected retirement age, 90 per cent of UK employees, (which accounts for 20.7 million) said that the rising cost of living was a key factor. A further 87 per cent also noted that they expect to retire after 65 due to poor returns on savings due to low interest rates and 86 per cent of employees cited inflation as a reason.

Those who referred to the heightened cost of living as a reason for delayed retirement rose significantly from 5 million, 21.95 per cent of employees in 2017 and 4.5 million, 24 per cent in 2016.

Following the decision to increase the UK’s state pension age, just 6 per cent think the government is helping to promote older workers, down from 11 per cent when the announcement was made last year.

Canada Life Group marketing director Paul Avis said: “The combination of an increase in the cost of living, poor returns on savings and inflation continue to impact the UK’s retirement plans. This is the second year in a row that our findings indicate that more than 70 per cent of the country’s workforce expect to work beyond the age of 65, and there is no sign that this trend will slow down any time soon.”

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