It is crucial for people to save for their retirement to ensure they have something to live off in later life, it has been said.

Laith Khalaf, pensions analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, believes that relying on the state pension alone is unlikely to give people a decent quality of life.

"Bearing in mind you reach retirement age at 65; if you are an average male you can expect to live another 25 years after that," he stressed.

He dubbed this as a "long time to be miserable", adding that it is "vitally important" for people to put money away.

Another option is that people work longer, Mr Khalaf claimed, although this might not be a particularly practical option.

A recent study from Lincoln Financial Group has revealed that 12 million UK adults are still not making pension contributions from their salary to fund retirement.

Furthermore, 17 per cent of UK adults who are not saving into a pension say they are too concerned over the economic downturn and subsequent fragility of the stock market.