Enlarge imageBy Jennifer Hill
LONDON (Reuters) - Only just over 10 percent of Britons are in line for a comfortable retirement, a study of pension poverty hotspots has revealed.
Just 14 percent of workers can look forward to what can be classed as a "comfortable" retirement, based on current retirement savings, according to JPMorgan.
It found that 64 percent of workers face a "difficult" retirement -- defined as having a pension of 40 percent or less of final salary weighted against the cost of living.
But its "pensions map" also showed differences in workers’ retirement outlook based upon geographical location and gender.
Two-thirds of those living in the east, southeast and southwest of England face bleak pension prospects.
That compares to 59 percent in the northeast
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of England, 60 percent in London and 62 percent in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.The situation is worse among women. Even for working women, the odds of facing tough retirement years are as high as three in four, compared to just over half of male colleagues.
The outlook among women, however, varies significantly with age: 93 percent of those aged 55-59 face a difficult retirement, but that falls to 57 percent among women aged 25-34.
That can be attributed to a hike in the retirement age to 65 by 2020, which will given women longer to save, and the fact that younger women are in higher-earning jobs than their older counterparts.
Prospects have also been boosted by two-thirds of new jobs in the public sector, with its generous pension scheme, going to women.
The research also found that Britons did not know how much they had to save for a comfortable retirement.
One in six of those surveyed thought a pension pot of 50,000 pounds would achieve an annual pension of 25,000, but in reality a fund of 340,000 -- nearly seven times that amount - is needed.
David Cassidy, chief executive of JPMorgan Invest, said: "In spite of the widespread pensions panic flooding UK headlines, the reality is that most workers still don’t understand the reality of the situation for them personally."
