Thousands of workers are "walking blindly" into retirement poverty because they are failing to save into a pension, a consultancy firm warned today.
One in five Britons say they are not saving for their retirement because they cannot afford to, while 12% say they have never got around to starting a pension, according to Aon Consulting.
Only 12% claim they are interested in pensions, with just 47% saying their employer provides them with one despite the fact that it is now law for all workers to have access to a pension scheme, even if their employer does not contribute.
Around 5% said they were going to live off the state pension and 10% went as far as saying they thought pensions were a con. Only 4% of the workers questioned said they put lots of savings into a pension scheme because of the tax breaks that are available.
Oliver Rowlands, head of retirement for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Aon Consulting, said: "A lot of people will simply be walking blindly into retirement poverty unless they take more of an active interest in their pensions.
"Governments and some employers are looking at ways to reduce their pensions obligations, so it is imperative that people take more responsibility themselves for their retirement finances."
The group, which questioned 7,500 workers in 10 European countries, found that the UK had some of the highest levels of pensions apathy in Europe.
Three times as many people in Germany as in the UK said they were interested in pensions because it was what they would live off during retirement, with only the French and Dutch showing a similar lack of concern as those in this country.
Britons were more likely to say they could not afford to save into a pension, or that they had not set one up, and half as many workers in the UK are planning to live off the state pension when they retire compared with those in France.
