A pension survey undertaken by a major company investment company in Britain has discovered that 10 million women just over half of all women currently employed are likely to suffer financial hardship when they retire. For men, the number is about 46 per cent.

Among the self employed, the figure is worse some 54 per cent have made inadequate provision for retirement. In the 20 to 29 year old age group the figure rises again to 57 per cent.

In Britain, the retirement provisions problem is also geographic with far more workers in Wales, for example, unpensioned, than in the south east. The similarities between British and Irish insurance markets suggest that figures here will not be very different.

Our Government has also sponsored a pension map in conjunction with the ESRI and the Irish Pensions Board to determine the state of pension funding and retirement expectations here.

The result of their effort is expected to be published later this summer and will give an up to date picture of the numbers of people in occupational and personal pension plans how much they have been contributing and the likelihood of hardship where inadequate provision has been made.

A spokesperson for Irish Life, the country's largest pension provider told Family Money that she expected "it will come up with some very interesting statistics. At the moment we're only guessing at the true level of coverage. A survey like this will be very healthy since it should focus attention on the whole subject and get people thinking hard about their own retirement."

When asked if it was her experience that the self employed are funding their pensions to the maximum allowable limit, she replied that "the majority of professionals doctors, lawyers, accountants probably are, but that most other self employed are not".

The Government's interest in the report is understandable the time bomb that is the publicly funded State pension scheme is ticking away and likely to go off in about 30 years time, say the experts. Given that State pension benefits may be defunct by then, it is the present generation of 30 year olds who should be making provisions now for their retirement.