The research found that more than one in four (27%) believe that they will face a shortfall in their pensions savings.
It also showed that over one-third (35%) of British workers are simply not contributing to any kind of savings, thereby creating a huge deficit when it comes to retirement. It claims that such a shortfall means that British employees are going to have to supplement their income in some other way or give up the dream of retiring altogether.
The research showed that two in five (41%) expect to take a part-time job in retirement to make up for the shortfall of their savings, while one in five (20%) don't expect to retire at all.
Peter Reilly, director HR research and consultancy at the Institute for Employment Studies, told HR magazine: “There has always been a degree of spread in the age people retire, for example, judges retire a lot later than miners.
"With the default retirement age being abolished, there is more opportunity for people to keep working, but a drop in annuities also means there is more pressure financially."
He added: "There has not always been this pressure to plan for retirement, as people didn’t use to live long past retiring. But as we now routinely live into our eighties and nineties, it is more important than ever to give some thought as to how you will support yourself in later years.”
Morten Nilsson, CEO of Now Pensions, said: "With the shortfall in pension savings, coupled with the fact that we are all living longer, there is a genuine risk that a large proportion of the population could face a poor future once they retire.
"Doing nothing is not an option anymore, if people want to retire on a reasonable income."
Nilsson added: "We are confident that the introduction of auto-enrolment will get people saving, some for the first time. We also hope that the rules will dispel the 'live now, save later' attitude that is inherent in our society."
Now Pensions carried out the online survey of 2,033 UK employees in August 2012.
