Britons banking on state pensions

As many as 20 per cent of Britons are expecting the state pension to be key to their retirement income, new figures reveal.

And six per cent of 18 to 54-year-olds expect to make it through their final years relying solely on state pensions, a Mori survey for Help the Aged reveals.

But with millions of UK residents relying on it, a massive 22 per cent of workers have no idea how much the basic state pension provides each week.

Currently, the basic state pensions pays out £82 a week.

"This new research shows that pension provision is exceedingly poor among today's workforce," said Michael Lake, director general of Help the Aged.

"This can be put down to the sheer complexity of the present system. One in five thinks they will come to rely on basic state provision as one of their main sources of income."

A leak of the government's pension's commission report hints that this confusion is set to be tackled with the adoption of a state pensions saving scheme - dubbed Britsaver - that employers will pay into and employees can take with them from job to job. Additionally, the new report is rumoured to recommend that the government raises the basic state pension to £109 a week.

And this could aid millions of pensioners.

Help the Aged's Mr Lake pointed out that over half of today's pensioners use the state pension as a major source of income - and that figure could rise to 70 per cent in the years to come.

"With just days before the publication of Adair Turner's pensions commission report, the case for radical reform to secure a decent, simple and fair pensions system could not be stronger," he concluded.