Do you know precisely how much is going into your pension each year, including contributions from your employer and the government? A­ worrying number of people don’t – especially those aged over 55.

A new survey carried out by Opinium on behalf of HL has revealed that a large number of people have no idea how much they and their employer are contributing to their pension, or how much benefit they are gaining from pension tax relief.

In fact, almost one in five (19%) are in the dark… and this figure rises to one-third (33%) of people aged over 55.

Having a precise fix on the figure is critical if you are going to ensure the financial security you are hoping for. Recent data from HL’s Savings and Resilience Barometer puts the cost of even a moderate retirement income at £25,000 per year for a single person.

Helen Morrissey, head of retirement analysis, Hargreaves Lansdown commented: “Planning for retirement is one of the most important things you can do and yet one-third of people aged over 55 have no clue about what they and their employer are putting in. If you don’t know what’s going in then you won’t know what you are going to get out of your pension and so we risk people sleepwalking into retirement with nowhere near enough to meet their needs.”

Knowing how much your employer and government are contributing is an essential part of the equation.

You will receive a government top-up in the form of pension tax relief on your pension contributions, meaning that every £100 a basic rate taxpayer pays into their pension only costs them £80. For higher rate taxpayers it’s an even better deal as the same contribution only costs them £60.

The employer contribution can also be significant. Under auto-enrolment employers have to pay a minimum of 3% into employee pensions. Some will pay more. Over time this can make a significant impact on what you end up with. Some will even pay in more if you hike your own contribution – the so-called employer match ­– and this can have a huge effect on your retirement if you are able to afford the extra contributions.

Adds Helen Morrissey: “It’s also well worth checking to see if your employer offers a salary sacrifice arrangement on their pension. This is where you sacrifice a portion of your salary in exchange for benefits such as pension contributions.

“As your salary is lower, then so will your income tax and National Insurance contributions, so you are able to maintain pension contributions with higher take home pay. The employer also saves on their National Insurance contribution – this is something employers may increasingly look at as the rate they pay was hiked in the recent Budget and will hit 15% in April.”

How RetireEasy LifePlan can make sense of your savings

Making sure you are correctly calculating the total value of the contributions and tax relief on your pension payments is just one part of the equation for a relaxed retirement. How much will this mean you can afford to draw down when you do retire, based on those payments?

Using the RetireEasy LifePlan will show you that at a glance. And, if you are concerned that the figures don’t add up to what you were hoping to achieve in retirement, you can run different scenarios to show what would happen if, for example, you upped your payments, considered a salary sacrifice or delayed your retirement.

If your RetireEasy LifePlan subscription has lapsed, you can restart it for just a few pounds a month – a small price to pay for peace of mind!