Almost half (48%) of adults aged between 18 and 34 expect to still be paying rent or a mortgage in retirement, Royal London has revealed.

The mutual life, pensions and investment provider’s latest report, Workplace Pensions – How much is enough?, showed that this compares to 33% of those aged between 50 and 69.

The research comes as the pension provider found that 13% of people believe they would need over £100,000 each year to achieve a good standard of living in retirement. This is significantly higher than Pension UK’s retirement living standards figure, which estimates that a comfortable standard of living will cost a single person £43,900 a year.

However, this does not include housing costs and assumes that tax has been paid on income.

Furthermore, Royal London stated that younger adults are putting added pressure on themselves to meet pension expectations, with the average person in this age group expecting to retire at 59 years old.

Pension and tax expert at Royal London, Claire Moffatt, said: "With such a wide gap in generational expectations, it’s easy to suggest pension expectations are overblown, but for a generation that’s experienced multiple economic downturns and high inflation, many will be concerned for their future quality of life.

"Many younger adults are questioning whether their state pension and personal savings will be sufficient to meet their future needs, and they have to balance current costs against future pension expectations. Breaking down barriers to guidance and advice, especially in relation to cost and trust, will be essential to tackling generational divides."

The research also revealed a generational divide in expectations, over 22% of people aged 18 to 34 expecting to need over £100,000 a year to have a good standard of living. This compares to 3% of people aged between 50 and 69.

Royal London found that while 26% of people said they feel anxious about whether they’ll have enough money to retire after checking their pension balance, only 27% of those with a workplace pension have sought guidance about their pension in the last year.

Moffatt concluded: "It’s clear that younger adults think they’ll need significantly higher income when they’ve finished work than those closer to retiring. This could be driven by their cost of living and inflation expectations, and also because young people face greater housing uncertainty than those before them."

---