“Finance directors are in the invidious position of knowingly providing many of their employees with an inadequate pension,” commented Simon Fraser, president of institutional business at Fidelity.

The lowest employer contribution rates were identified in the retail and IT sectors, where employees are also contributing less to their pensions schemes than to their direct benefit (DB) equivalent.

“Improving employee appreciation of pensions is critical,” Mr Fraser stressed, otherwise there is a risk that employees simply match employers’ low contributions and further minimise their pension pot.

Meanwhile, a former government pensions adviser has told the ITV1 programme, Where’s My Pension Gone?, that four in five people may not have enough money to live on in their retirement.

Ros Altmann warned of a “pensions scandal”, noting that “about 80 per cent of the country needs to be seriously worried that when they come to retire, they will simply not have enough money to live on at anything like a decent level”.

For more information about occupational pensions, click here.

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