12% 'have no idea over retirement'

Around one in 10 people of working age in Britain does not plan to retire at all, a study suggests.

Nearly two-fifths (38%) of those surveyed said they have no idea when they will be able to stop working, while 12% said they do not envisage retiring at all, research from Baring Asset Management found.

The biggest proportion of those who said they do not plan to retire live in Wales and the South West, while those living in Scotland were the least likely to say this.

The study also found a significant increase in uncertainty among people who are approaching retirement age, in the 55 to 64-year-old age bracket.

When another survey was carried out last year, 30% of people in this close to retirement age bracket were unable to pinpoint the exact age at which they will retire, a share which increased to 44% in this year's study.

Researchers said the findings were a "stark contrast" to a similar study carried out in 2008, when all of those who took part were confident that they would eventually be able to retire and just 1% said they were unsure exactly when they would be able to do this.

The research comes ahead of the Government's landmark scheme to automatically enrol up to 10 million people into workplace pension schemes, starting in October with larger companies.

The Government wants to tackle the pensions saving crisis amid concerns that the ageing population is not putting enough cash aside for its later years.

Fifty years ago only one in 10 children could expect to live to be 100 years old, and today that figure is one in four.

Alongside this, participation in pension schemes has been declining. Official figures released earlier this year showed that the proportion of people in a workplace pension had fallen below half for the first time in at least 15 years.