More than a quarter of all workers do not have any savings to retire on.

Research by Abbey National shows that many people believe it is up to the State to provide for them in their old age.

This means they will have to rely on the basic State pension, currently £67.50 a week for a single person, which is likely to be eroded over the years by inflation.

The research was conducted by NOP Solutions for Abbey in anticipation of the launch of the Government's new stakeholder pension scheme in April next year.

When it comes into force all employers with more than five staff will be legally obliged to provide workers with access to a pension scheme.

However figures produced by Abbey also reveal that a worrying 50 per cent of all small firm owner-managers are still unaware that they have a statutory requirement to provide employees with access to a pension from October 2001, six months after the start of the stakeholder scheme.

In addition nearly three quarters of 18-to-24-year-olds know absolutely nothing about the forthcoming stakeholder pension and its benefits.

Younger workers are also least likely to be saving anything for their retirement, with four in ten of 18 to 34-year-olds aware they should be saving but failing to do anything about it.

This is a matter for serious concern, according to an Abbey National spokesman.