Over half (56 per cent) of pension savers feel like they’ll never be able to retire, research from the Living Wage Foundation and Savanta has revealed.

According to its poll of over 3,000 people who saved into a pension in the last year, 64 per cent expect to need to work several years beyond retirement age, and 37 per cent are not confident that they are saving enough to meet even basic needs in retirement.

The survey also found that 9 per cent had stopped or reduced their pension contributions in the past six months, and 8 per cent plan to cut their contributions in the months ahead.

Of those who cut their contributions, 42 per cent blamed rising-living costs, among whom 85 per cent said they had seen costs rise most in groceries and utility bills.

Previous research by the Living Wage Foundation and the Resolution Foundation also suggested that the pollsters’ concerns are not unfounded.

Their research in July 2022 found 85 per cent of workers, equal to 16 million people, were not saving at levels likely to deliver an acceptable standard of living in retirement.

This prompted calls for a Living Pension contribution standard that was set beyond the auto-enrolment minimum, which the Living Wage Foundation has launched today (21 March), setting a target of at least 12 per cent of a worker’s annual salary to go into pensions saving, of which the employer pays in at least 7 per cent.

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