Nine in ten dream of retiring - but half cannot

Almost nine out of 10 (87 per cent) of people aged 45 and over said they dream of retiring in the next five years, according to HSBC.

But 43 per cent said they were unable to, with 71 per cent saying they haven’t saved enough; 17 per cent have dependants who rely on their income and 13 per cent have too much debt to consider it.

The survey comes as a powerful committee of MPs raised concerns about the potential burden on small firms from a landmark drive to place people into workplace pensions.

Some 58,000 employers have placed 5.4 million people into workplace pensions as a result of automatic enrolment, which was introduced in 2012 to head off fears of a looming old age savings crisis.

But the Commons Public Accounts Committee said the “real test” for the scheme was beginning as 1.8 million small firms have to enrol their staff, with the MPs warning that these employers have “fewer resources” to cope with the change than larger companies.

The cross-party committee also called for the Government to clarify how smaller pension pots, created as people move between employers, will be treated.

HSBC’s survey, which spoke to more than 18,000 across 17 countries, also found that people in the UK were more likely than their counterparts globally to say that their personal circumstances were a barrier to their retirement plans.

The number of people in Yorkshire who wish to retire soon is higher than UK average, 87 per cent compared with 75 per cent - and much higher than the global average of 65 per cent. In China, 75 per cent of people also wanted to retire in the next five years, but that figure was higher in Argentina and France, where 78 per cent and 77 per cent of people respectively wanted to retire in the next five years.

Some 12 per cent of those surveyed in the UK expect that they will never fully retire, up from 10 per cent when similar research was carried out a year ago.