Retirement is an unachievable dream for millions of workers who cannot believe they will ever have enough money to give up working.
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New research reveals that 39% of workers are despondent about their later years.
And more workers feel they will never retire than those who think they will (35%), says a survey by market research firm Mintel.
Younger workers are more resigned to working longer (42%), compared to a third of workers aged over 54 years old who cannot foresee ever fully retiring.
And the further south a worker lives, the less likely they feel they will retire. In Scotland, 32% cannot imagine retiring, while in London the number reaches 45%.
Look forward to the state pension
The trigger most workers see as indicating retirement has arrived is when they receive the state pension.
A third of workers are looking forward to claiming the state pension.
Rich Shepherd, a senior financial services analyst with the firm, said: “Too many people have a negative view of retirement, with many expecting their generation’s retirement to be less comfortable than both those who came before and those to follow.
“Rising state pension ages and the struggle to save adequate funds for retirement make it easy for consumers to compare their prospective retirement with previous generations and see that they must work longer while receiving a less comfortable pension. For some, the situation is negative enough to call the concept of retirement into question.”
Savers need more help
The research also found that although more than half of full-time workers are saving into a pension (55%), the percentages drop to just over a third of part time employees (35%) and half that for the self-employed (17%).
Fewer women (31%) have pensions than men (44%).
Besides pensions, one in five workers expect to draw savings from a Cash ISA to help fund their retirement, while a third will dip into other cash savings.
“Increasing the amount that consumers save in their pension will be a priority for providers and the government over the next two to three years. While there is an awareness among consumers that they should contribute more, relatively few do anything about it. More could be done to help consumers bridge the gap between knowing that they should save more, wanting to save more, and actually saving more,” said Shepherd.
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