Dennie Smith, 63, wishes she had saved into a private pension when she was younger

For most of Dennie Smith’s life, saving into a pension felt unachievable.

She assumed that she would figure out her retirement later in life but now, at the age of 63, she realises she has left herself in a financial bind and cannot afford to retire.

Ms Smith, who is self-employed and lives in Oxted, Surrey, expects to be working into her seventies as the state pension will not go far enough.

It is Britons like Ms Smith that the Government is worried about as it revives the Pensions Commission, which will look at how to boost retirement savings.

People retiring in 2050 will be worse off than pensioners today, the Department for Work and Pensions warned earlier this month.

Almost half of working-age adults are not putting any money into a private pension at all, with low earners and the self-employed less likely to be pension saving.

A shortfall in funds is also worse among women, with a 48 per cent gender gap in private pension wealth among those currently retiring.

When Ms Smith was younger and had four children, she said “didn’t really think too much about it”.

She worked part-time – two days a week – in the hairdressing industry but never got a workplace pension.

“With four children, I just didn’t have the spare money to put into a pension at the time,” she said. “Hindsight is a wonderful thing. When you’re in your thirties, you think, ‘Oh, I don’t need to worry about a pension.’ And then time just goes so quick. Now I’m 63. I wish I had done it.”

She wishes there had been more information and help available about pensions when she was younger.

“Nobody’s ever discussed it with me,” she said. “Obviously I knew that there were pensions, and I was just like, ‘oh, well, I can’t afford it,’ and that was that.”

“It should be a bigger thing – it should be discussed more,” she added.

She then became self-employed, running a hair salon and now Geek Meet Club, a friendship and dating app for geeks.

Ms Smith spent years paying into the pensions of the staff at her salon but never got a pension herself.

She said she always thought: “The older I get, the more I’ve got to put in for a pension. You wouldn’t be able to just put in £50 a week – it would have to be a lot more.”

“I’ve just never had that money to do it, to be honest,” she added.

‘I’ve been penalised for raising my children’

She said she has also been affected by the gender pensions gap, having lost out on money because she reduced her hours to help care for her children.

“It’s only now I’m older I’ve been even looking at the state pension,” she said. “When I log on to the government website, it says that I have missing years of national insurance payments. I think that’s unfair, because I was the one bringing up the four children.”

She said she did a great job of bringing up her children, who have never been in any trouble, but feels “penalised for doing that”.

Her husband will get the full state pension when he retires but she will not.

She said she cannot afford to pay an additional lump sum now to be able to access the full state pension when she turns 66.

“I have a friend who has upped it and she’s had to pay around £6,000,” she said. “I haven’t got £6,000 spare to do that. I just think, how unfair is that? She had children and she’s in her sixties now. She’s still working, but she’s had to pay this lump sum so that she can get her full pension.”

‘I couldn’t live on the state pension’

Ms Smith said not having a pension is making it difficult to plan for her retirement.

“I think I’ll still be having the salon probably in my seventies,” she said. “In retirement age, I couldn’t live on just the state pension. It just wouldn’t be enough money. So it is a worry.”

She said she hopes her app, which she launched in November, will also help her earn enough to be able to retire.

“With the hair salon, there’s a ceiling in what you can earn,” she said. “Since lockdown, that’s massively dropped so I’m literally only just keeping my head above water with that.”