Nearly 40% of retirees in the UK are financially supporting grown-up children, according to the Great Retirement report by the Wisdom Council in association with M&G. For most, this isn’t occasional pocket money — it’s day-to-day living costs, house deposits, wedding bills, and university fees. For a retiree drawing down a pension pot of £150,000, regular support of £300 a
More than one in ten people aged 66 and over in the UK are still working — that’s roughly 1.12 million people, up from 880,000 a decade ago. And a growing share of them are doing it from home. Remote and hybrid work has opened a path past State Pension age that barely existed before 2020. But the reasons older
Only 23% of workers are on track for a moderate retirement, and for couples the picture is even more uneven — one partner often carries a much smaller pension pot, sometimes none at all. The full new State Pension pays £12,548 a year per person in 2026/27, but a couple aiming for a moderate standard needs £45,400 a year between
Most people imagine retirement as a comfortable chapter — holidays, hobbies, time with family. The data tells a different story. According to the Pensions Commission, 15 million people in the UK are currently undersaving for retirement, and 45% of working-age adults — around 18 million people — are not saving into any pension at all. For someone approaching retirement with
More than 17,000 former teachers returned to classrooms in England during 2024 — the highest number since records began in 2014-15. That figure sits inside a much bigger picture: roughly 2.8 million UK retirees over 50 have now gone back to work after formally retiring, according to ONS data. For most, it is not a short-term experiment. The average returning
Three in five retirees who pulled out tax-free cash before the November Budget now say they regret it, according to Quilter research covered by the Telegraph. That figure alone should stop anyone thinking the safe move is to grab the money now and sort out the consequences later. For someone with a £400,000 pot, taking £100,000 tax-free early and leaving
Pension scams cost UK savers an estimated £10 billion since 2015, with the average victim losing around £50,000 according to the Financial Conduct Authority. For someone in their late 50s, that sum often represents the difference between a comfortable retirement and a decade of financial strain with no time left to rebuild. Disclosure: Some links on this page are affiliate
Only 14% of divorce settlements in the UK include a pension sharing order, even though 80% of financial consent orders involve a private pension. That gap represents billions of pounds in retirement income that never reaches the person who helped build it — enough, in many cases, to cover a decade or more of living costs. Disclosure: Some links on
Pension fraud in the UK is not a small problem. Between 2023 and 2024, an estimated £17.7 million of pension funds was fraudulently accessed, with the average victim losing nearly £47,000. Fewer than one in five people report it. That means the true figure is almost certainly higher. For someone approaching retirement, a loss of that size can mean the
If you and your partner are aiming for different retirement ages, you’re far from alone. Government data shows the median ideal retirement age in the UK is 60, while the median expected retirement age is 66 — a six-year gap that most couples never formally plan for. Around 44% of adults expect to retire before they reach State Pension age,
The full new State Pension pays £230.25 per week. The average nursing home costs £1,372 per week. That gap — roughly £1,142 each week — is the single biggest financial shock a retiree can face, and it’s getting wider. Care home fees rose about 10% between December 2024 and December 2025 alone, adding roughly £6,750 to the annual bill for
Across the UK, more people are dipping into their pension pots before retirement than at any point since the 2015 pension freedoms. The number of lump sum withdrawals has climbed sharply, driven by fears that tax rules could change and reduce access to the 25% tax-free portion. For someone with £200,000 saved, that tax-free entitlement is worth £50,000 today. If
