Brits fear retirement won't be possible in the future

Counting Money

Almost three quarters of the respondents of a recent survey expressed fears that a traditional retirement would not be a possibility in their future.

BBC Newsnight conducted a report and found that seven out of ten interviewees could not imagine being able to stop working and live off of a pension for the 30 or so years that retirement would last.

Just under 75 percent of the respondents feared that it would be unlikely they’d have saved enough money to retire at an age of their own choosing. More than 75 percent of the quizzed also worried that younger people faced an even tougher future, especially as the pension age will only get higher.

The survey was conducted after Government recently announced extensive changes to UK pensions. The pension age is set to rise earlier than scheduled by the previous Government, and the default retirement age is being scrapped, meaning that people aged 65 and over will be able to continue employment.

However many people chose not to blame the Government, with 69 percent insisting that having enough money for retirement was their own responsibility.

Professor Jeremy Black from the University of Exeter spoke of the difference between younger generations and their forefathers: “The relationship between the generations has been transformed. Whereas it used to be the case that up-and-coming generations tended to be more prosperous then their parents, now we're going to be in reverse.”