The two unions pointed out in their letter that the programme of reform proposed by the Government will only be successful with the engagement of the leaders of both colleges and schools.

At the moment, the union pointed out that the teachers and staff are feeling undermined by the changes and are feeling threatened by what may happen to their pension scheme.

The changes will leave most teachers paying more, and working longer to eventually receive a smaller pension. Because of the changes, many staff are feeling demoralised claim the union.

With retirement planning such a key issue on the Governments agenda at the moment, the union do not believe weakening the quality of the pension on offer will make recruiting any easier.

50% of special needs school head teacher positions are currently vacant and the union are worried that without anyone to run the schools, they will lower their standards.

General secretary of the NAHT, Russell Hobby explained, “Public workers are doing their bit to bring our nation’s expenses under control. Teachers have already accepted a two-year pay freeze and tighter budgets. We already make significant contributions to our pension scheme and have agreed to bear the risk if it is unaffordable – but there is no evidence that it is unaffordable. Both the National Audit Office and the Public Accounts Committee say the current scheme is working.”

Hobby added, “It’s a tough job, with 60-hour weeks and unrelenting scrutiny.”

“The pensions cuts could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. There are many ways to respond to a recruitment crisis – a pay cut is not usually one of them.”

General Secretary of the ASCL, Brian Lightman joined the protest, adding, “Pensions have already been undermined by stealth changes including the intention to increase contributions and raise the retirement age. The government’s fixation is driven by the need to cut public spending to address the national debt, not because the pension scheme is unaffordable. Changes made to pension arrangements now will affect young people’s education for years to come, when the current budget situation is a matter of history. These decisions should be based on a long-term view.

“We know that good teachers, support staff and leaders will leave the profession early if their pension benefits are cut, and it will become more difficult to recruit high quality people. The bottom line is that the standard of education will suffer because of damage to public sector pensions.”

Research, which was carried out by industry experts in conjunction with UK annuity providers has found that the popularity of IFAs is waning as people turn to internet sites like this one in search of advice and reviews of the best products.

The research was commissioned by annuity administrators, Xafinity Paymaster, who revealed that the report showed that many providers still believe that IFAs should be involved in critical decisions such as annuity advice, but recognised that most retirees went through their existing investment provider as a first choice.

Hot on the heels of the existing investment provider was the Internet, the tool that provides so much free information. Third choice was the scheme trustee or current employer of that person, followed by an IFA and finally advice from the bank.

The research also found the 96% of industry experts believe that there will be a decrease in intermediary sales, and an increase in execution only business as a result of the implementation of RDR proposals, better and more available advice online and low levels of annuity pots. Just last year, only 72% of experts thought the same thing.

44% of those responding believe that any advice and guidance process should begin at least five years before retirement, 22% between three and five years before retirement and 35% believe it should be 1-3 years before retirement. No one believed it should be left until the last 12 months.

70% thought the retiree should be paying for that advice themselves, although with so much free advice online it seems that the cost should be quite low.

Insurance and Payments Director from Xafinity Paymaster, Keith Boughton added, “Many people are now comfortable with buying their car or home insurance, booking a holiday, or buying a TV on the Internet. However, the purchase of an annuity is, for most people, the most important financial purchase they will make; even more so than the purchase of the family home as once the decision is made it cannot be changed.

“There was recognition amongst annuity industry professionals in our latest survey that the Internet will be a source of much information and, if it is easy for retirees to transact using this medium, it will attract increased volumes of business. Other retirees will use the Internet for research and then discuss their findings with an advisor or simply transact on a non-advisory basis. The use of the Internet and web-based specialists will certainly be the focus for retirees with mid-range levels of funds.“

The revelation will prove worrying to government officials trying to raise awareness of the importance of saving for ones future, and the easiest way to make sure you will have a comfortable retirement is to start young.

With very few final salary pension schemes in place now, and the ‘job for life’ culture is quickly disappearing, its becoming less common that young people are saving for their futures without one dedicated scheme through which to do it.

Dr Craig Berry from the International Longevity Centre believes that young people are living for today, and as a result spend more of their income than any other age group.

Berry added that this could be linked to the increased time spent in education these days, as well as the habit of taking several part time jobs before finally pursuing a career.

Dr Berry also noted that many young people saw investing in property as an alternative way of looking after their future, despite it’s chaotic nature. He noted that the mortgage market in the UK has now stabilised and the despite house prices falling slightly, property could eventually become a attractive saving option.

Hargreaves Landsdown released figures that showed to achieve a comfortable pension of £25,000 a year, someone would have to save £430 a month from the age of 30 to 68.

Those saving from 25 would have to save less a month, as the extra five years worth of payments will have the full 38 years between 30 and 68 to gain interest and will significantly boost that persons final pension fund.

Research from Scottish Widows released this week shows a complete lack of retirement planning from the UK, as 49% were revealed to not be saving enough money towards their retirement, with 20% not saving anything at all.

The survey, which asked 5,000 people between 30 and state pension age who earn more than £10,000 a year found the government still have a long way to go if they want to educate the country on the importance of saving for their futures.

Dr Berry added, ”I don’t want to demonise young people for being reckless, but it has got to be more normal for people to start saving into pensions.”

Many thousands of pensioners are failing to claim their entitlements to pension credits, which could currently cost them over £30 per week in lost state pension benefits.

The situation has been highlighted by the Government, as pensions minister Steve Web has begun a pilot scheme using HMRC data to identify and contact pensioners entitled to pensions credit, but who were unaware or simply not taking it up.

The pilot scheme will focus on 2,000 randomly chosen pensioners, in an effort to improve awareness and uptake of pension credits alongside the basic state pension, and to improve pensioners’ overall pension income. Given that the focus group of 2,000 is just a sample of those failing to claim their full state pension entitlements, the clear implication is that the total number of pensioners currently losing out on part of their state pension entitlements could be much greater.

At present the basic state pension is £97.65 for a single person, but if that person has less than £10,000 in savings or other income they may be eligible for pension credits that could top this up to a maximum of £132.60. For over-65s there is an additional pensions credit payment of £20.52 for a single person, and £27.09 for a couple.

Eligibility for pension credits is established by means-testing, and it has long been suggested that many pensioners fail to take up their full state pension credits because they are simply uncomfortable with the prospect of having to admit they are in need.

In the longer term, the pension credits system may eventually be abolished if the government goes ahead with plans for a higher, flat-rate basic state pension of £140 a week for all.

Unclaimed pension credits currently account for over half  of all unclaimed benefits for pensioners.

UK pensioners are increasingly being forced to draw on their savings, as the rising cost of living has cut their pension income by over £700 a year in the last 2 years.

New research by Age UK is based on a new inflation measure, dubbed the ‘Silver Retail Price Index’ or Silver RPI, which shows that pension income is particularly badly hit by the ongoing rises in inflation, as pension incomes tend to be spent on those basic goods most affected.

The implication for younger pension savers is that forward thinking, good pension advice, and retirement planning is now needed, to ensure that pension funds are well invested to provide the best possible returns on retirement.

Ordinary savers also affected

Ordinary savers in the UK are also under pressure, with the average household now needing an additional £1,100 to maintain the same standard of living they had two years ago.

Figures from Sainsbury’s Finance showed that inflation has cut deep into the resources of Londoners in particular, who now would need to find an extra £1,342 a year to restore their standard of living to 2008 levels, while in other parts of the UK the typical figure would be around £951 (the figure for the North-East).

Consumer price inflation in October was 3.2%, according to the Office for National Statistics, driven largely by rises in fuel costs.

Consumers seeking ways to minimise the impact of inflation on their income can seek independent financial advice on tax-advantaged savings options, such as ISAs, from their independent financial adviser.

New research by MetLife Europe has revealed that 32%  of over-50s surveyed* have no pension plans in place, and will rely on the basic state pension as the cornerstone of their retirement planning.

Only a quarter of those surveyed said they felt financially prepared for retirement, but 64% said they either did not believe they would have enough to live on in retirement, or they did not know how much their pension income would be.

The research also focused on those respondants who do have a personal or company pensions plan, but confirmed other similar findings in the past, which indicated that in general women have saved far less than men towards their retirement. The average older woman has £34,500 set aside in a pension, while the same figure for an older man was £68,800.

The news has been called a ‘national scandal’ by leading pensions campaigner and former government adviser Dr. Ros Altman, who said: “The whole system is imploding. It’s a real national scandal. We’ve got millions of people coming up to pension age. What are they going to live on?

“In the long run, it’s in all our interests to have an ageing population with savings – otherwise there will be too many people in poverty,” she said.

The government is currently discussing raising the basic state pension to £140 per week. Under the government’s National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) scheme, to be introduced from 2012, all workers not already saving for a company pension will be auto-enrolled into saving for a NEST company pension.

*MetLife survey of 1,150 over-50s who have not yet retired

The government has this week confirmed that the National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) is to proceed in a modified form from 2012. The scheme will provide structured pension planning for almost all workers, who must be provided with a pension by the end of the scheme’s roll-out period in 2016.

In order to combat ‘pensions inertia’, all workers who still do not have a company pension will be auto-enrolled into the NEST, provided they are 22 or over and earn more than £7,475 per year. Those who wish to, may then opt out again. The NEST pension contributions will equal 8% of salary, consisting of 3% from employers, 4% from employees and 1% from government. On completion of the scheme it is expected that over 80% of workers will have a pension, compared with the average uptake of 55% in companies that have a scheme currently in place.

The NEST may not be the place to be for all workers, however, and there are concerns that anyone with less than 20 years left to retirement may not be invested in the NEST pension scheme for long enough to see any worthwhile benefit. It has also been suggested that there may be a 2% levy on employee contributions, to repay the £600m cost of the loan made by government to fund the setup of the scheme.

There has been one modification to previous proposals, however.

It had been feared that a requirement to enrol workers as soon as they joined a company might have resulted in a logistical nightmare for employers with a large number of casual workers. The new proposals now give employers a 3-month grace period, before a worker must be enrolled.

Pensioner couples now take a quarter of their pension income from work in retirement, according to new data published this week by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

In 2009, the average pensioner couple had a joint weekly income of £564, equivalent to £29,000 a year.  The general increase in income of retired households means that they are enjoying a better average pension income than in previous years, although research has shown that many continue to work out of financial necessity, and have sacrificed their dream of retirement, because their private pension savings have failed to deliver the lifestyle they had planned for, after work.

Pensioners now make up just 38% of the poorest fifth of all UK households, showing a marked improvement from the level of 56% in 1977.

The ONS has analysed the sources of pension income for retired couples, and found that while 25% comes from private pensions and company pensions, 35% came from state pensions , and 25% from earnings from continuing work.

At the lower end of the scale, however, the ONS has pointed out that over half of single pensioners receive less than £10,000 per year in total  pension income, and that the poorest 20% of pensioners get by on less than £197 per week.

In its previous-year data for 2008, the ONS showed that 31% of pensioners depended on the Basic State Pension and pension credits as their sole pension income.

EU statistics have recently shown that the UK basic state pension is the lowest state pension in Europe, at  just 30.8% of average working pay, compared with an EU average of 60%.

Over 60% of those wealthy enough to retire tomorrow are not building a retirement into their financial planning, because they plan to actively work for the rest of their lives, according to Barclays Wealth.

Despite this, the need for financial planning advice and a solid financial plan is still at the centre of the working lives of these ‘Nevertirees’, driven by issues such as inheritance tax and succession, personal health, and the unpredictability of return on existing investments.

Barclays Wealth’s global survey found that the expectation of a period of leisure after our working lives is a primarily anglo-saxon and European tradition, focussed on the UK, Europe and North America.

Countries where social attitudes did not include a retirement, and where retirement was generally not mandated or encouraged by government policies, on the other hand, showed up the highest percentages of Nevertirees – in Saudi Arabia (92% of those surveyed declared they will never retire), UAE (91%), Qatar (89%), South Africa (88%) and Latin America (78%).

At the bottom of the scale for Nevertirees were Hong Kong/Singapore, the US, Japan, Spain and Switzerland. Barclays pointed out that Hong Kong and Singapore may have featured at the lower end of the scale as both areas have longstanding mandatory retirement savings plans.

The conclusion of the Barclays Wealth report “The Age Illusion” highlighted the ongoing need for financial advice, and stated that ‘a clear-headed assessment of financial needs and how to fund them is essential. Whatever the circumstances, the focus is likely to remain on careful planning, rather than a radical change in the way in which we plan for and fund later life.”

There will be over 800,000 people turning 65 during 2012, compared with 650,000 in 2011, putting an incredible strain on government spending on the basic state pension, according to the Department of Work & Pensions.

The strain on the government’s pensions budget emphasises the need for consumers with no pension today to secure their retirement income with a private or personal pension.

The ballooning number of so-called ‘baby boomers’ hearks back to the post-war exuberance of the years 1946-47, although the first baby boomers were women able to draw their basic state pensions at age 60 in 2005/06. Government spending on the state pension system has risen by £14bn since 2006, and the new clutch of baby boomers coming online over the next 2 years is expected to add another £4bn or 28.5% to an already enormous state pensions budget.

The emerging problem of over-reliance on government pensions is likely to be particularly apparent as the baby boomers come to the end of their working lives in increasing numbers. Aviva has pointed out recently that this generation lived through a golden era of final salary pensions and rising property prices, which can no longer be taken for granted, but may have inhibited their propensity to make provisions for private pensions income and given people exaggerated hopes for their retirement lifestyles.

The result is likely to be a generation less well prepared for retirement, and more reliant on the basic state pension than they expected to be,  Aviva said.

AXA wealth has predicted that the retirement income of the late 1940s generation could fall short of their expectations by as much as £5,000 per year.