You’re probably saving for retirement. But is it enough?
Most people feel like they're doing the right thing. Contributions going in, pot slowly growing, box mentally ticked. But there's a question most people never actually ask: enough for what, exactly?
15 million UK adults are undersaving for retirement. Not because they're reckless. Not because they've ignored it completely. But because they've never stopped to asking that exact question.
What retirement actually costs.
Before you can know if you have a gap, you need a reference point. The Retirement Living Standards give us real-world benchmarks for what life actually costs in retirement.
Source: Retirement Living Standards, 2025/26
Most people, when they see these numbers for the first time, feel something shift. Because retirement isn't an abstract future event anymore. It has a price tag.
Here’s the gap most people don’t see.
The average LGPS annual pension is £8,466 for men and £4,285 for women. Add the full State Pension, and you're looking at roughly:
£21,013
Average projected income for men
£16,832
Average projected income for women
That clears the minimum bar, just about. But it's a long way from moderate. And "minimum" is rarely the retirement anyone actually pictures when they imagine stopping work.
That gap between the life you're expecting and the income you're heading towards? That's where the problem lives.
The tool that changes the maths.
If you're in the LGPS, you have access to a Shared Cost AVC. And it's one of the most efficient savings tools in existence.
Contributions come out of your salary before tax and National Insurance. Which means HMRC is effectively topping up every pound you put in, before growth, before time, before anything else has happened.
For a basic-rate taxpayer, every £100 contributed becomes £138.75 invested. Instantly.
For higher-rate taxpayers, the advantage is even bigger.
That's not a slow-burn, wait-and-see strategy. It's a structural advantage that kicks in the moment your first contribution lands.
Small contributions. Big results.
If you contribute £138.75 into your Shared Cost AVC every month (which only costs you £100 from your take-home pay) and kept that up for 15 years, your estimated pot at retirement would be around £31,571. Total cost to you: £18,000.*
That's not a dramatic financial overhaul. That's a standing order and some patience.
No big sacrifices. No complex decisions. Just consistency.
One thing to do right now.
You don't need to solve retirement today. You just need to understand where you stand.
Start by checking your LGPS statement and your State Pension forecast. Then compare your projected income to the Retirement Living Standards. That alone will tell you whether there's a gap, and how big it is.
If there is one, the question isn't how to fix everything at once. It's whether a small, consistent contribution could start closing it over time.
That's it. That's the whole move.
The real problem isn't money.
Fifteen million people are undersaving for retirement. But the issue isn't really income.
It's uncertainty. People aren't failing to save because they can't, they're failing to save because they don't know what they need. And without a target, it's easy to assume things are probably fine and move on.
Once you have clarity on where you actually stand, everything changes. The gap becomes visible. The fix becomes obvious. And the action required is usually smaller than you feared.
The difference between a retirement you dread and one you look forward to usually starts with understanding your position.
Everything else follows from there.
Figures based on an estimated 3% compound growth. Based on a basic-rate taxpayer in England, Wales or Northern Ireland. Scottish residents can check their figures using our calculator.