Almost 100,000 fewer retirees each year benefit from a company pension then when Labour took office.

These are the findings that are buried deep within the Department of Work and Pensions Family Resources Survey Statistical Report 2003-04.

Reporting on the story, the Times said: “After rising under the Conservatives from 40 per cent in 1979 to 66 per cent in 1997, the figure dropped back to 60 per cent by 2003-04.”

Pensions sprung into the limelight last October when Adair Turner’s report revealed a pensions’ black hole amounting to £57 billion a year.

Many companies have reacted to the unfavourable demographics that brought this about by slashing final salary schemes and becoming less generous with pension schemes.

Tactically, Labour has scheduled Turner’s final recommendations for well after the General Election in May.

Quoted in the paper, David Willetts, the Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary said: “This is yet more damning evidence of the pensions crisis Mr Blair has created. More and more people are retiring without occupational pensions and are being forced back into work to avoid being driven on to Labour’s mean-tested benefits.”

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