A breakdown of the impact the financial crisis has caused over private pension, savings and retirement planning in the UK. We all know that we should all be saving for our pensions, but most of us aren’t currently paying into a pension at all.

According to a survey commissioned by the BBC and that rises to nearly 2/3 for the under 30’s, many will need to work for longer or face drastic cuts in there standard of living after retire ring.

At every stage of a working life we need to be saving for the future, but the reality highlighted by the pole for BBC is that many of us aren’t. For them hopes of a secure retirement seem almost certain to be dashed. Amongst all those surveyed of working age, half said that they were currently not saving anything for a pension either through an employer or private scheme.

Of those in the 20 to 30 age group nearly 2/3rds aren’t putting anything aside for pensions. Jonathan Swift who runs a plumbing business is one of them. He has been put off pension saving because of previous scandals and the recent stock market falls. “I’m worried I mean you see banks that collapse and you see the stock market going down and historic events in the form of actual life I mean it does put a doubt in the back of your mind.”

Perhaps more surprisingly amongst 41 to 60 year olds as many as 45% said they weren’t’ saving for pensions. Andrew and Rachel Knowles are in that number. They are both accountants, he contributed to pension funds in previous jobs but not now as he is self employed. She’s never been in any pension scheme.

We really see that we will be doing some kind of work well into our 70’s; we kind of accept that is where we are because we haven’t got the prevention provision. It comes back to this thing: We do not trust the system. I don’t want to get to the point to where I am sticking money under the mattress but I would like to be a little more in control of it.

Experts say to secure a private pension of just ten thousand pounds a year you need to save 200 pounds a month if you start in your 20’s, 300 a month if you start in your 30’s, 500 if you start in your 40’s, and if you wait till your 50’s one thousand pounds a month.

There are uncomfortable messages here for policy makers with the suggestion that significant numbers of people do not have faith that the pension system will deliver for them and for those individuals who aren’t saving enough but who assume that everything will come right in the end.

I think that there is this mismatch between expectations and reality and we are heading potentially for millions of people in England in poverty. Those people will be entitled to the state pension and means tested benefits but if they want more than that they will have to save a lot more or work a lot longer.