By Charlotte Beugge

Britain's workforce is in dire need of financial education if the findings of a survey out this week are correct.

Management consultancy A T Kearney found that a quarter of Britons earning up to £40,000 didn't actually know whether they were contributing to a pension or indeed had any retirement income in place.

And even those higher up the salary tree showed a worrying lack of knowledge - or interest - in their pension provision, with 29% of those earning more than £100,000 unaware if they were actually contributing to a pension or even had one they'd contributed to in the past.

Women were particularly lacking in knowledge, with 49% having no idea if they had any pension saving at all.

Neil Dennington, a principal at A.T. Kearney, said: "Significant percentages of the people we spoke to weren't even aware of whether they had a pension or not.

"People, of all ages, are really only thinking about the 'here and now' in terms of their finances and seem unable or unwilling to plan financially for the future."

He added that while official Department for Work and Pensions figures showed that 38% of those Britons of working age are saving into a private pension, "we believe the figure to be lower at 36%".

"This means the decline in pension saving is even more pronounced than thought which will have a profound impact over the long term for government and citizens alike," he explained.

Auto-enrolment into pension schemes will start later this year, with the aim of getting round the inertia that seems to hit many Britons when pensions are mentioned.