Featured at the annual Conference and Exhbition in Harrogate, the latest <a href="http://www.cipd.co.uk" target="_blank"Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) survey suggests shows that employees approaching retirement age are much more realistic than younger people about the age at which they expect to retire.

The findings come in the light of the current “pensions crisis”, made up of a combination of companies closing their final salary schemes, an ageing population, longer lives, a lack of take up of stakeholder pensions and individual reluctance to save for the future.

Main findings
– Young people are most ambitious to retire early: more than half of those under 30 would like to retire at age 50 or below. People in the NHS are less likely than those in other sectors to want to retire before 50. The finding is particularly alarming in the light of a recent PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) survey which suggests that a person born in 1980 would retire on just 30% of his or her final salary.

– The average age at which people expect to retire is 60. Men expect to retire between 60 and 61 on average, with women expecting to leave at just under 60.

– Older workers are also more satisfied, committed and motivated than younger ones. Employees aged 55 and above are twice as likely as average to be totally satisfied with the existing balance between their work activities and other aspects of their life.

Single and divorced people expect to retire at later ages than those who are married. So family breakdown and reluctance to get married will tend to postpone people’s expected retirement age.

– People for whom work is a central life interest hope to retire later. UK employers will need to work to make work fulfilling and enjoyable if they are to support government’s efforts to persuade people to stay on.

– One in four employees considers their pension provision to be adequate, with two out of five saying it is somewhat adequate.

– One in three of those aged under 25 believe their pension provision is not at all adequate. Those aged 55 or above, however, are more confident: 62% say their pension is either very or at least somewhat adequate. Unsurprisingly, public sector workers are more likely to regard their pension provision as adequate.

Read TrainingZONE’s full coverage of the CIPD conference and exhbition.