One in eight retiring in 2018 '˜have no private pension'

Some 12% of people planning to retire in 2018 have no private pension of their own, rising to nearly one in five (18%) women retiring this year, Prudential found.

Women retiring this year are more than twice as likely as men to have no private pension of their own to fall back on, the research suggests.

Among men retiring this year, 7% have no private pension, according to the survey of 1,000 people planning to retire in 2018.

One in 10 (10%) people said they will be totally or somewhat reliant on the state pension to fund their retirement, with others having some other form of savings.

Prudential said this could leave these people starting their retirement with an income of around £1,452 a year below the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s minimum income standard for a single pensioner.

The poll, which asked people planning to retire in a given year about their finances, found the number of people retiring without any private pension is falling.

In 2017, 14% of people retiring in that year had no private pension and the proportion is now nearly half the 23% recorded in 2008.

The gap between men and women is also narrowing - in 2016, 22% of women had no private retirement savings compared with 7% of men.

The introduction of automatic enrolment into workplace pensions in 2012 has transformed the retirement savings culture, with around nine in 10 people staying in their pension rather than choosing to opt out.

Minimum contributions into workplace pensions are gradually being stepped up from next month, with a further increase to be introduced in 2019.