The future of the state pension is behind industry and government pressure on promoting pensions, an expert says.

Defaqto’s principal consultant for pensions and wealth management and lead author of its Retirement Savings & Income report 2007, Matt Ward, also said the company was supportive of the concept of personal accounts as an additional way to save.

Research for the report showed that 71 per cent of respondents planned to rely upon the state pension as an income in retirement.

Almost half (49 per cent) said they would be reliant upon their employer’s pension scheme, while a quarter (24 per cent) depended on bank or building society savings.

Just over a fifth (22 per cent) said they would have their main income from personal pension savings.

Mr Ward said: “The research proves that all is not lost with regards to engaging consumers with pensions saving plans but consumer needs must be put at the forefront of all future planning in this area.”

Recent research from Abbey revealed that only 48 per cent of people felt they had saved enough to live the retirement they wanted.

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