Ministers yesterday said they were "alarmed" by the figures and warned that millions of British workers facing a "poorer future" when they retire.
The new analysis by the Department for Work and Pensions found that the number of working-age people saving into a private pension fell from 46 per cent in 2000 to 38 per cent last year.
The fall was most dramatic in people under the age of 40, while men are less likely to have saved for their retirement than women.
An estimated 11.6 million people currently have private pensions, meaning that millions fewer people are saving for one than a decade ago.
Steve Webb, the Pensions minister, said: “With fewer people saving into a pension, lower annuity rates and an average of 23 years in retirement, many people could face a poorer future in their later lives.”
He said that the “alarming” figures underscore why the Government’s pension reforms will be "vital”.
From next year, companies will be forced to start automatically enrolling their staff in workplace pension schemes. This will give millions of people access to a pension for the first time.
The proportion of men saving for their retirement has fallen from 52 per cent to 39 per cent over the last decade. Among people aged between 20 and 39, pension provision fell from 43 per cent to 31 per cent.
Mr Webb said: “We simply must put a stop this trend and get people saving. Automatic enrolment, beginning for the largest employers later this year, will get millions of people saving, many for the first time.”
The Department for Work and Pensions found that the highest pension provision in the UK is in the South East, where 43 per cent of people are saving into a private retirement fund, and Scotland, where 42 per cent are.
The lowest pension participation is in Northern Ireland, London and West Midlands, where around a third of people save into a pension.
Experts have warned that the “golden age” of pensions is over, and that millions of Britons will be left with measly retirement pots.
Joanne Segars, chief executive of the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF), which represents the UK’s pensions industry, said earlier this month that the UK “simply isn’t salting enough away for its old age”.
Mark Hyde Harrison, the NAPF’s chairman, recently said that the pension industry has declined markedly.
He argued that defined contribution pension schemes, into which about five million Britons save, were structured in an "inefficient and wasteful" way.
Mr Hyde Harrison said: “The collective view is that our golden age of pensions is gone, and we are on course for potential failure.
The Government recently announced changes to the pensions system to make it easier for people who have moved house or job to be “re-united” with small workplace pension pots that they might have lost trace of.
Mr Webb said that around £3 billion of unclaimed pensions are sitting in UK pension schemes.
The Telegraph
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