By Helen Tansley, Financial Planning Consultant, Armstrong Watson

IT is estimated that one in four people in work do not pay into a pension, in addition to those who are self-employed and in the gig economy.

In ITV’s ‘Tonight Show’ (Thursday 9th May) poll of 2,000 people, 60% of respondents did not know how much was in their pension pot and when asked how much you need in a personal pension pot to generate £9,000 a year when you retire, a figure of approximately £350,000 came as a big surprise to most people.

Three people were used as a case study to highlight the challenge of trying to live off their future predicted pensions for a week, after all household bills had been paid but excluding food.

Of the three, one was making a pension contribution of £400 per month and had been since her late teens, another was contributing £150 per month but had started later in life and the third had not yet started contributing.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the programme showed that the person who started paying in to a pension from an early age had more of a chance of achieving their retirement goals, whereas the other two struggled to live on the State Pension alone, or slightly above this.

Baroness Roz Altman commented that receiving financial advice from an Independent Financial Adviser could help people boost their retirement funds and that the advice is worth paying for. Financial advisers work with you to understand your needs and aspirations when you want to stop working and will formulate a plan to help you achieve those goals.

Those who are exclusively reliant on the State Pension - currently £168.60 per week (£8,767.20 per year), but possibly less if they don’t have a full National Insurance Contributions record - are considerably less likely to be able to enjoy a comfortable retirement.

Armstrong Watson Financial Planning & Wealth Management is a firm of Chartered Financial Planners and we strive to help our clients achieve their financial goals through careful financial planning. If it’s time to perform a review of your financial arrangements please give me a call on 01132 211332 or email helen.tansley@armstrongwatson.co.uk