no private retirement savings<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe mother-of-two, who works in housekeeping, added: \u201cBeing a single parent, the money is always allocated for daily essentials.\u201d<\/p>\n
The research reflects a wider problem \u2013 that just 15 per cent of people prioritise pension savings, and nearly one in five say they don\u2019t have a pension at all. More than half \u2013 53 per cent, up from 51 per cent in 2024 \u2013 say they worry they\u2019re not saving enough for later life.<\/p>\n
The state pension will rise by 4.8 per cent in April under the triple lock mechanism \u2013 taking the annual total to \u00a312,547.60.<\/p>\n
But that increase will push the cost of the payment up by around \u00a37bn, to \u00a3152.6bn a year.<\/p>\n
The triple lock guarantees that the state pension rises each year by whichever is highest out of inflation, average wage growth, or 2.5 per cent. <\/p>\n
While the upcoming increase is welcome news for many, future rises under the policy remain uncertain.<\/p>\n
Harris, for one, supports the rise, but remains concerned. She said: \u201cI can\u2019t see how anyone can solely live off the state pension.\u201d<\/p>\n
She\u2019s not alone in her concern. The research found that only 29 per cent of people believe the triple lock will still exist when they reach retirement. <\/p>\n
Gen X \u2013 those currently aged 45 to 60 \u2013 are particularly doubtful, with just 21 per cent expecting the policy to survive long term.<\/p>\n
Catherine Foot, director of the Standard Life Centre for the Future of Retirement, said the findings highlight how \u201cuncertain people feel about their financial futures\u201d.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cWhile raising the state pension age further and faster than currently planned would impact everyone, it\u2019s clear that the impact wouldn\u2019t be felt equally, given the wide variations we see in life expectancy across the country.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIn some parts of the UK, people are more likely to stop working earlier due to health conditions, disabilities or caring responsibilities \u2013 meaning they may struggle to reach the age at which the benefit becomes available.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese structural inequalities deserve close attention in the current independent review of the state pension age and future policy debates that follow it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Standard Life\u2019s analysis of ONS life expectancy figures shows that the number of years people can expect to receive state pension payments varies significantly across the UK.<\/p>\n
For example, men in Blackpool can expect to receive the pension for around 6.1 years on average, compared to 19.5 years for men in Kensington and Chelsea. For women, the figures are 11.5 years and 19.5 years respectively.<\/p>\n
Foot said the revival of the Independent Pensions Commission is a chance to rethink the entire system.<\/p>\n
She continued: \u201cTwo decades ago, the Commission reshaped retirement saving through auto-enrolment; today, we need similarly bold thinking to ensure the state pension is considered alongside private pension provision and remains both sustainable and fair.<\/p>\n
\u201cCreating a retirement system that is equitable, adaptable and trusted will take coordinated action across Government, employers, the pensions industry and individuals themselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe good news is that we now have the chance to do that \u2013 and rebuild confidence in retirement for the decades ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emma Harris, 52, says she is physically unable to continue working until 70 – and she doesn\u2019t have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225219,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[84,4176,1447,4178,4174,4175,4204,14971,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-225218","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-finance","10":"tag-pensioners","11":"tag-pensions","12":"tag-personal-finance","13":"tag-personalfinance","14":"tag-retirement","15":"tag-state-pension-age","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}