People can avoid debt management problems later in life by starting to save from an early age, it has been suggested.

David White, chief executive of the Children’s Mutual, said some parents find their own pensions problems made worse as they look to help fund their children’s futures.

"If you are taking on more debt at 50 when you could have been putting more money in your pension fund, you are reducing what you will have when you retire," he warned.

Remortgaging a property is another way in which parents attempt to help their children later in life, although this can also prove costly in the long-term, Mr White claimed.

People in their 20s often start saving towards a house rather than thinking about a pension scheme, he added, which again can have an impact on the security of their finances in the future.

A recent report from the OECD found that in the UK, 43.8 per cent of retirement incomes are derived from private savings, while stocks made up the majority of pension fund portfolios in English-speaking countries before the economic crisis.