Around one in three people (32%) believe they will need an inheritance to have enough income to live on in retirement, new research from Hargreaves Lansdown has shown.

A study by the investment platform revealed that 44% of respondents said they wouldn’t need an inheritance, while 24% said they were unsure.

Hargreaves Lansdown’s findings, based on a survey by Opinium of 2,000 people, showed that younger people were more likely to think they would need an inheritance, with 39% of those aged 18-54 saying so. This compared to around one in five (21%) of those over the age of 55.

Head of retirement analysis at Hargreaves Lansdown, Helen Morrissey, commented that inheriting money could “go a long way towards plugging gaps in our finances”.

“Receiving a lump sum can help you pay off your mortgage, pay for travel or give you a bit of extra money in retirement,” Morrissey said.

“However, for some receiving an inheritance has gone from a nice to have to something more like a necessity with just under one third of people saying they thought they would need an inheritance to have enough income to live on in their retirement years.

“Younger people were more likely to say they thought they would need one though this may be because they haven’t had the chance to sit down and work out what kind of income they are on track for in their later years. However, it’s still the case that one in five people aged over 55 say they will need money from an inheritance to get by.”

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