Only one in three Irish workers can afford to retire at 66 and most expect to work until 70, survey finds

This is because they do not expect to be able to afford to stop working, a survey has found.

Just one in three workers expect to retire at the age of 66, when people qualify for the state pension.

A similar proportion expect to have to keep working until they reach 70, according to a survey of 900 workers conducted by pensions and investment company Royal London Ireland.

Early retirement is only likely for about one in five Irish workers.

Most of those who expect to keep working to the age of 70 are thought to be in the private sector, where pension coverage is low – and where those that do have a pension often have insufficient funds built up to allow them to retire early.

The Central Statistics Office found earlier this year that 57pc of workers say the state pension will be their main source of income when they retire. This is because these people have no work-based pension or private retirement fund.

From next month, workers will have the option of continuing to work up to the age of 70 rather than taking the state pension at the current qualifying age of 66.

In return, deferred recipients would be entitled to a higher weekly payment of €315, compared with the current rate of €265.30 a week.

Most people would retire early if they could afford to do so. Research undertaken earlier this year by Royal London Ireland found that almost six in 10 workers in Ireland would retire at the age of 50 or 60 if they could afford it.

A further one in five would stop working today if finances allowed.

Mark Reilly, pension proposition lead with Royal London Ireland, said: “Our findings reveal that just one in six expect that, in reality, their present financial circumstances will enable them to retire at the age of 60, which means that many individuals will not see this aspiration come to fruition.”

Mr Reilly said it was striking that a substantial number of individuals expect having to delay retirement until they reach the age of 66 or 70, despite harbouring a strong desire to retire earlier.

The Government has promised that the much-delayed auto-enrolment system will finally be launched by the end of next year.

It would bring as many as 750,000 private sector employees into a workplace retirement savings plan, helping to defuse a mounting pensions time bomb as the population ages.

Auto-enrolment has been labelled the biggest pensions shake-up in the history of the State, but a number of deadlines for its launch have been missed in the 17 years since it was first proposed.

The fact that no state contributions were allotted for it in Budget 2024 has created fresh doubts about the latest deadline being met.

Mr Reilly said the survey shows that many young people anticipate retiring later in life than what might have been considered the norm in previous generations.