New research from pension communications company Pension Geeks shows that 83% of people in work wish they were saving more into their pension, with almost a third of over-55s uncertain if they will be able to retire on their current savings.

The concerns are backed by recent savings figures: the Scottish Widows Retirement Report shows that the number of people saving “adequately” for their retirement has remained at 56% for the third year in a row.

Some 18% of UK adults – some nine million people – are saving nothing at all for their later life.

One issue highlighted in the new research was a lack of understanding about pensions: fewer than 10% of people said they are confident that they have a thorough understanding of how pensions work, and 86% blaming this on a lack of information.

“Our research has uncovered some thought-provoking findings on the state of pensions and pension awareness in the UK,” said Jonathan Bland, the co-founder of Pension Geeks. “With annual figures from Scottish Widows revealing a worrying stagnation in retirement savings, the reality is that many face not having enough in their pension pots to secure a decent income for the future.

“As a nation we just aren’t engaged enough when it comes to how much we’re saving and some of that responsibility is actually on us as an industry to do more to help.”

Robert Cochran, a pensions expert at Scottish Widows, said: “Automatic enrolment has undoubtedly been a success for millions of UK adults who have started saving towards retirement for the first time.

“In fact, since the initiative was introduced in 2012 our research shows that the number of people saving adequately for retirement has increased from 45% to 56%.

“However, as the level of saving has stalled over the past few years it is obvious even more needs to be done across the industry to better educate people on the importance of putting away as much as they can towards retirement.”

Scottish Widows has calculated that 12% of salary is an adequate savings level – and say that the Government should make this the new minimum contribution level into a workplace pension by 2020.

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