Pensions expert warns 80% face cash shortfall

Published on Tuesday 23 January 2007 12:39

A FORMER government pensions adviser has warned that 80 per cent of people may not have enough money to live on during their retirement.

Ros Altmann criticised the Government for ruling over a system where employee savings have been destroyed and said the country was in the throws of a pensions crisis.

Ms Altmann, who is now an independent consultant, made the comments as part of ITV1 programme Where's My Pension Gone? which is due to be screened on Thursday.

In the programme, Ms Altmann will say: "I would say about 80 per cent of the country needs to be seriously worried that when they come to retire, they will simply not have enough money to live on at anything like a decent level."

Ms Altmann added that Gordon Brown was responsible for the crisis and cal ed on ministers to compensate an estimated 125,000 workers who had lost some or all of their pensions due to companies going bust.

She added: "The first act was to take money out of the schemes, which he has never put back in. He has also watched people's lives being destroyed by not receiving the pensions they were relying on."