A new £49 robo-advice service with a free guidance report is set to be launched.

The People’s Pension’s provider B&CE has joined forces with LV= to offer an online retirement planning tool.

The company said it would help fill the advice gap for its members and the construction industry EasyBuild scheme.

From next month, 2.3 million members will now have the option to use it.

Members will be able to get a free guidance report setting out four possible uses for their pot and how long it could last, and a personalised online retirement advice service costing £49.

They will still be “signposted to traditional advice routes first, but the online tool will help fill the advice gap for those who don’t want to use them”.

John Perks, managing director of Retirement Solutions at LV=, said affordable, accessible, high quality advice is lacking at the moment.

He said: “We’ve found that nearly half a million people retire each year without taking advice, meaning they could be losing out.”

YouGov research for The People’s Pension suggested 30% of those who have a pension would prefer to use online tools for financial advice than speak to a financial adviser.

The survey also found that over half (53%) with a pension would use a free online retirement planning tool to help them decide what to do with their pension savings, while a quarter (25%) said they would pay a reasonable fee to use an online retirement planning advice service from a financial services company.

Roy Porter, director of business development for The People’s Pension, said it would provide “additional affordable choice for our members to help them obtain a good outcome from their retirement savings”.

He said: “We know advisers play a really important role in helping people make decisions about their individual circumstances at retirement if members choose to engage with them, so we’ll continue to promote traditional options with our members when they contact us at retirement as well as the online service.

“Our research suggests that a lot of people are not taking advice at the moment. Whether that’s because of cost, lack of awareness or fear, it’s creating a big guidance and advice gap which needs to be filled.”