Retirees may soon be finding they need debt management advice, as new figures show the value of assets in defined contribution pension schemes is decreasing.

According to Aon Consulting, they saw a ten per cent dive last month, which is attributed to falls in the stock market.

"Their first port of call however should be paying down debt, though even in doing this they will free up more of their monthly budget and need to consider what to do with it," Laith Khalaf, a pensions analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, tells the Daily Telegraph.

Furthermore, the expert believes the government will expect people to go out and spend their interest savings.

The figures also suggest the funds have lost a third of their value since September 2007, amounting to £182 billion.

According to the latest statistics released by NS&I, 47 per cent of the population manage to save regularly, remaining consistent for the third quarter.

Longer term, the monthly amount Britons are setting aside as a percentage of income has fallen every autumn since 2005, it also found.