Making sufficient pension provision is a looming issue for the UK’s 4.6 million self-employed people, says Aegon which carried out a global survey including the UK.

When it comes to planning, the UK is lagging behind with 75% of the self-employed not regularly saving for retirement, placing them second bottom out of 15 countries surveyed. With low levels of saving, understandably, only 15% of people are very optimistic about having money to live on in retirement.

Despite the gloomy figures, half of those surveyed were optimistic about the timing of their retirement. Although 53% said they’d still be working after age 65, they cited positive reasons for doing so, like keeping their brain active or because they enjoyed their career. Only one in ten (9%) expected they would never retire.

The introduction of auto-enrolment was designed to get the nation saving, says Aegon, but disappointingly the pension reforms not only neglect the self-employed, they come with a further sting in the tail. As well as missing out on valuable employer and Government contributions, those self-employed business owners who employ staff have to pay for their employees’ pension contributions.

A global study looking into the saving habits of the self-employed revealed that in the UK, many are not taking adequate steps to prepare for their future retirement. The research was carried out by Aegon in 15 countries across the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia.

Kate Smith, head of pensions at Aegon, said: “Against a backdrop of rapidly increasing numbers of self-employed in the UK, there’s a growing concern that this group are increasingly likely to struggle with inadequate retirement income when they eventually give up working.

“The self-employed face unique challenges when it comes to saving for retirement. As well as missing out on a lifetime of employer contributions, a variable income means many don’t have certainty of how much they’ll earn from one month to the next, making saving difficult.