One in five older people retiring this year plan to rely on State Pension for income

dailyrecord.co.uk:

New research from abrdn (formerly Standard Life) has found that when it comes to funding retirement, one in five (20%) of UK adults set to retire this year plan to use their State Pension as their main source of income.

This is despite the fact that the State Pension’s annual increase is currently running below inflation, meaning its value in real terms is declining at a time when recipients are struggling with a cost of living crisis.Which means for someone retiring on the full New State Pension of £185.15 per week, the purchasing power of this money will be less.In its second ‘Class of’ report, surveying 2,000 recent and future retirees, abrdn reveals a worrying lack of preparedness.Only a quarter (25%) of this year’s retirees feel very confident that they have saved enough for their retirement.This lack of preparation is one of the reasons underpinning a new trend of ‘flexi-retirement’ revealed by abrdn, with 66 per cent of new retirees continuing to work in retirement in some form.Almost a quarter (22%) of those planning to continue working say they are left with little choice due to the cost-of-living crisis.Meanwhile, more than a quarter (27%) of those retiring in 2022 say they don’t know how to mitigate the impact of inflation on their retirement income, while a fifth (20%) are retiring later than they initially planned as they haven’t saved enough.Commenting on the findings, Paul Titterton, a digital retirement advice expert at abrdn, said: “It’s worrying enough that one in five people are intending to rely solely on the State Pension to fund their retirement, but this is happening at a time of high inflation and the cost of living crisis, meaning we are likely to see a growing retirement poverty gap.“While the