46% of UK adults expect to work past state pension age

A poll found that younger savers expected to retire even later, with 13% of 18 to 24-year-olds thinking that they will still be working when they are 70 and older

Around half (46%) of UK adults believe that they will still be working after they reach state pension age, while 7% do not think that they will ever be able to retire, according to research from People’s Partnership.

The poll found that younger savers expected to retire even later, with 13% of 18 to 24-year-olds thinking that they will still be working when they are 70 and older.

Apart from this, the poll found that less than a quarter (24%) of non-retired responders were convinced that they would have sufficient pension savings for them to relish the lifestyle they were expecting in retirement.

This is possibly unsurprising, as 20% said they did not have any savings or pensions in place and would depend on the state pension in retirement, while around a quarter (24%) said they have personal investments or savings for retirement.

Retirement confidence has also dropped in recent years, as the survey found that around 4 in ten (39%) said they were less convinced about their retirement expectations than they were when the pandemic started in 2020.

Commenting on the findings, director of policy at People’s Partnership, Phil Brown, said that it is "clear" that the cost-of-living crisis, and the unpredictability this is producing means that many people are rightly worried about their retirement prospects.

Though, he proposed that building upon the success of automatic enrolment and expanding it to more people could help boost financial strength.

We know that millions are still not saving adequately to continue their present standard of living in retirement, which is why we agree with demands to raise the minimum auto-enrolment contribution rate from 8% to 12% of earnings, as soon as we are through the cost-of-living-crisis, Brown added.

Apart from adequacy concerns, research from Hargreaves Lansdown has stressed the need for appropriate retirement planning, disclosing that one fifth (19%) of people do not know when they will retire, increasing to nearly one in four women (23%).

Apart from this, over one in five (22%) believe they will retire at age 60 or earlier, 38% believe they will retire after the age of 65, while 17% of people aged more than 55 have no idea when they will retire.

In view of the findings, Hargreaves Lansdown head of retirement analysis, Helen Morrissey, cautioned that "it looks like we are playing a game of retirement roulette".

It is one thing to keep your options open but another thing altogether to have no plan in place, Morrissey added.

She added that it is good to have a bit of flexibility in our retirement plans as markets can go up and down and life events impact our finances.