Britons not saving enough for retirement: Study

Britons are not saving enough for their retirement, with fewer than half of all employees saving into a workplace pension scheme, according to new research.

A study by the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) also revealed that a third of the British workforce worked for a company that did not offer any form of pension at all.

The dire warning about the savings culture in Britain comes from the NAPF, representing the pensions industry. It comes in step with the launch of the government's so-called auto-enrolment scheme, which would see all workers automatically given a workplace pension.

The flagship scheme would be introduced by large companies having a staff of over 120,000 today, while the smallest firms would have time until 2018 to implement auto-enrolment.

According to Steve Webb, the pensions minister, 11 million UK citizens would be eligible for a pension under the scheme, although they would have the option to not sign up.

Joanne Segars, the NAPF's chief executive, called on people to go along with  auto-enrolment or else risk poverty in their old age.