One in six (15%) freelancers do not currently have a private or personal pension.

A third of freelance workers do have a pension but are not currently paying into it, according to the report from the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed (IPSE).

The top reasons given for not currently saving included having other financial priorities (34%), affordability (24%) and ceasing contributions to a pension after becoming self-employed (24%).

The report follows research published by IPSE and CMME Contractor Wealth in 2021, which found that 14% of self-employed professionals were not saving for later life in any way.

Andy Chamberlain, director of policy at the IPSE, said: "Successive governments have ducked the issue of self-employed savings for years, but the crisis is now too big for a future government to ignore. It will likely require intervention of a magnitude similar to automatic enrolment for employees.

"Pensions aren’t the only option for those saving for later life. Some self-employed people may find other methods of saving more attractive, if they were better suited to volatile incomes; the Lifetime ISA is one example, and IPSE has called for it to be revamped to better serve independent workers.

"With an election little over one year away, political parties with ambitions for government must get to grips with this challenge now and be unafraid to propose bold, radical solutions in their bid to win the backing of the self-employed."

• The IPSE surveyed 502 freelancers via an online survey in December.