Almost half (48%) of workers aged 45 to 54 do not feel confident they will retire with a comfortable income, according to a new report.
A third (32%) of all UK workers are not confident about their income in retirement, according to the research from pensions consultancy Barnett Waddingham.
Those over the age of 55 were particularly nervous about their income in retirement, with 40% saying they had a significant lack of confidence in their financial futures.
The research highlighted growing insecurity among older workers in recent years. When asked in 2024, 42% of those between 45 and 54, and 37% of those over the age of 55, were not confident they would retire with a comfortable income.
Mark Futcher, head of DC at Barnett Waddingham, said: "For many workers, retirement planning can feel a bit like staring at a foggy horizon - it's there, but the detail is hard to make out.
“Too many people are still approaching that horizon without a clear map of where they stand, or whether their current savings will carry them into the lifestyle they’re hoping for.”
One of the drivers of the insecurity is a lack of engagement with pension saving.
Over a quarter (28%) of workers surveyed for the report had not set any financial goals for their retirement, a leap from the 13% that said the same in the 2024 study. One in five (17%) of those expecting to retire within the next decade still had no retirement goals.
Women were considerably more concerned about their preparedness for retirement. While over a quarter (27%) of men expressed concerns about their retirement income, that figure jumped to two fifths (42%) of women.
Workers’ concerns were not prompting pension engagement. While over half (58%) of the workforce was worried about losing track of their various pension pots or the total value of their savings, 19% of workers have never logged in to view their pension value. Just 27% said they checked their accounts on a regular annual basis.
This lack of engagement did not improve much for those the cusp of retirement. Over a quarter (27%) of workers planning to retire in under a year said they have never logged in to view their pension value, and only 53% said they checked their accounts multiple times a year during this final run-up.
• Censuswide surveyed 2002 workers in the UK between 29 January and 3 February 2025.