The news is even more severe for those who choose to retire at 60 in 2044 and pay into a DC scheme – on average they could receive a pension of just £8,836 per year, equating to just 18 per cent of the average final salary pension at £47,826.

“Many more people could find themselves struggling to live comfortably on their pensions and facing an old age on the bread line”, declares Martyn Bogira, Prudential’s director of DC schemes, who continued to stress the importance of planning early for retirement in order to make the possibility of having a comfortable income in retirement as strong as possible.

Prudential believes that whilst UK employees should contribute to a pension as soon as possible, they also need to actively manage pension payments to ensure they increase the total they save as their career progresses. Workers are advised by Prudential to look at other tax-efficient saving vehicles such as ISAs and look at investing or saving to compensate for inadequate retirement provision during their careers.

- Pensions Age June 2009