The Department for Work and Pensions has defended its reforms to state pensions, after research suggested the public feel changes are not fair.

Aegon’s UK readiness report found that 70% of survey respondents lacked trust in the current government to make ‘fair decisions’ when it comes to reforming the state pension.

Some 10% of those surveyed thought that there would be no state pension at all when they reached retirement.

Increasing retirement age was also a concern among the UK population, with 36% saying that they would like further age increases to be frozen.

The DWP released a statement in response to the survey results, which read: “Our pension reforms reflect a bold move to create a simpler and fairer system, providing a firm basis from which people can plan their retirement.

“Along with the new state pension we have also introduced automatic enrolment for workplace pensions which is enabling over 6.4 million people to start saving or save more for their future. We expect this number to rise to around 9m by 2018.”

The DWP also said it is “committed to protecting people’s incomes in later life”. Officials said the Government has increased the value of the state pension and pension credit significantly in recent years and it has a “multichannel communications campaign” to raise awareness of the need to engage with pensions.

Officials also stated that an independent review of state pension age is underway to “ensure that state pensions can be delivered sustainably”.

The DWP said it will “continue to protect people through the triple lock, which ensures that someone’s basic state pension increases by whichever is highest; earnings, inflation or 2.5 per cent”.

Only a third of Aegon’s survey respondents believed that the state pension will be as generous when they retire and a further third (33%) believed that it would still exist, but at a less generous level.

Kate Smith, head of pensions at Aegon, said: “Against a backdrop of almost continuous reform, it’s perhaps not surprising that just a third of people believe the state pension will be as generous when they come to retire. This wasn’t helped by the confusion surrounding the introduction of the new flat rate state pension with many reaching retirement finding they’re not entitled to the full pension of £155.65 per week.

“In an ageing society, the state pension is always going to be an expensive benefit to maintain, but it’s one we hope future governments will continue to support given that it underpins the majority of people’s retirement incomes.”