Almost half of the UK’s working population freely admits to not saving enough money for retirement, with many hoping to survive on the basic state pension.

It follows news that FTSE 100 firms are still unable to convince people to save and get rid of pension deficits.

The new figures come from the NOP/Accenture poll, which suggests that 46 per cent are ignoring pensions, a third of which are only ten years from the state retirement age.

Yet it is not because of lack of money: when asked what they would do with an extra £100 each month if they had it, only four per cent said they would save for retirement.

“It is alarming that the British public continues to ignore its future. If this trend continues, Great Britain will be a nation of ‘poverty pensioners’, or worse still, people will be forced to continue to work through their seventies,” said Accenture’s Andrew Middleton.

A third of respondents told the Accenture survey that they were too young to start thinking about pensions while one in five said pensions were simply too expensive.

The government this week said no to calls for the state retirement age to be raised to 70.