A study of retirement savings across five major nations has found that UK workers are lagging behind some of their European counterparts when it comes to setting aside money each month for later life.

M&G Wealth reported that a quarter (24 per cent) of Brits surveyed say they are saving as much as they can every month into their pension schemes, a lower figure than that found in other European countries, including Spain where 31 percent of those surveyed are doing so.

A third (33 per cent) of UK respondents cited affordability as the main barrier to saving more, significantly higher than those in Italy (22 per cent), Germany (27 per cent), and Spain (27 per cent).

The picture is worse for UK women, with only an estimated 11 per cent of women in the UK having recently increased their workplace contributions compared to 16 per cent of men.

A similar situation can be found in other European countries. In France and Italy, a good majority of men actively put money into their workplace pension, whilst only half of women do so.

M&G Wealth also discovered that only 9 per cent of UK women surveyed have set up a private pension, which is almost half the number of men (17 percent).

In addition, 27 per cent of men in the UK have set up an ISA to save for retirement compared with only 18 per cent of women.

The study also shows that almost a fifth of UK households expect to work beyond the state pension age.

M&G Wealth pensions expert Kirsty Anderson, said that the survey has underlined the fact that rising inflation has continued to diminish people’s savings and spending power.

“The reality is that many in the UK are telling us they simply can’t afford to save more for retirement," she added.

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