If you live in the east, south-east or south-west of England, there’s a two-thirds chance that your pension prospects will be bleak.
And if you are a woman, the odds of facing tough retirement years are as high as three in four, according to the UK Pensions Map, published today by financial services provider JPMorgan Invest.
The firm has completed a review of the extent to which the UK’s workers will receive a comfortable pension when they retire.
Alarmingly, the map shows that almost two-thirds (64%) of UK workers will face a “difficult” retirement – defined as a pension of 40% or less of final salary weighted against the cost of living.
The proportion of workers likely to have difficulty in their old age ranges from 59% in the north east of England, to 67% in eastern England.
When the results are broken down by sex, the results are particularly troubling for the UK’s female workforce. Three-quarters (74%) are heading for a difficult retirement, compared to about half (55%) of their male colleagues.
In fact, at the current rate at which we are saving for our pensions, just one in seven (14%) workers can look forward to what can be classed as a ‘comfortable’ retirement.
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David Cassidy, chief executive of JPMorgan Invest, said: “In spite of the widespread pensions panic flooding UK headlines, the reality is that most workers still don’t understand the reality of the situation for them personally.
“There is an urgent need to educate the workforce on how they should plan and save for a better standard of retirement.”
