A pensions expert has called for urgent action to help the self-employed as figures showed a significant decline in saving over the past decade.

A pensions firm director says it is ‘bonkers’ that many pre-retirees appear to be ready to cash in on their pension after already using the 25% tax-free allowance to “save for a rainy day”.

More than 1.5 million personal State Pension forecasts were issued in the six months after the launch of the new State Pension in April.

Retirement analysts have suggested that the state pension triple lock could survive for a few years yet because of fears about angering older voters – despite MPs calling for it to be scrapped.