A survey has found that half of British adults between 20 and 60 years of age are not setting aside any money for their pension.

Of the 1,358 people surveys, under-30s fared the worst, with only one in three putting anything in a scheme. This figure rose to 55% of 41 to 60-year-olds.

The most common barrier for young people is affordability, with many saying they want to pay off debts before enrolling on a scheme. Others felt that retirement was too far away to be worth planning for. Those in the 41 plus age bracket gave a variety of reasons for not putting away money in a pension scheme, including being made redundant and leaving full-time work to have and care for children.

Although only 36% of under-30s had signed up to a private pension scheme, half of all respondents in this age category said that they were still confident they would be able to live comfortably during retirement.

However, Ed Gardner, chief executive of UK retirement and savings at the pensions firm Metlife, said that young people should not make such assumptions. An increasing number of final salary pension schemes are closing, meaning that younger people may have to rely on defined contribution pension schemes which tend to provide a more meagre return, he said.

“Unfortunately the tide has turned and younger people face even more challenges in saving for their retirement.”

Mr Gardner added that people need to ask themselves how much money they will need to retire at 65, and expect to live another 25-30 years.

“What you will find is that many people are currently saving nowhere near enough,” he said.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 28th, 2009 at 8:35 am and is filed under Budgeting, Retirement, Savings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.