Concerns have been raised recently after a study by financial experts revealed that thousands of workers in the UK are ‘walking blindly’ into retirement poverty because of their failure to plan their future finances properly and save into a pension.

The survey questioned 7,500 workers across 10 European countries from which it was discovered that the UK had some of the highest levels of pension’s indifference in Europe.

The questionnaire revealed that one in five Britons are not sufficiently planning for their retirement because they could not afford to in the current state of economic recovery, while 12% stated that they hadn’t actually got around to starting a pension.

Of the UK workers questioned as part of the survey, 12% declared an open interest in pensions, whereas nearly half (47%) of participants said that their employer currently provides them with one, a low figure when compared with the fact that it is now a legal requirement for all workers to have access to a pension scheme.

Analysing the results, 5% of participants completely dismissed the idea of retirement planning by stating that they were simply going to live off the state pension when they were older and so hadn’t looked into any other form of investment planning.

In contrast to those individuals who were not looking to participate in a pension scheme, 4% of British workers said that they put a large amount of their income into a pension pot because of the tax breaks available from doing so.

With the newly elected coalition government looking at ways to reduce pension obligations, it is imperative that individuals begin to take more responsibility for their retirement finances or face the very real prospect of ‘walking blindly’ into retirement poverty.

For further information regarding retirement planning and financial planning in general, please contact one of our expert advisers on 0114 272 3994.