Young people are being urged to start up a pension scheme to avoid having a smaller fund base in their retirement years.

According to HSBC, half of young people between the ages of 16 and 24 believe they are too young to make a pension policy a priority.

However, the group's research has shown that while a 21-year-old making a contribution of £75 each month into his pension will end up with a pension fund of almost £13,000 each year, a 30-year-old starting up will only receive £6,470.

Tom McPhael, head of pensions research at Hargreaves Lansdown, urged recent graduates to moot taking up a private pension arrangement organised by their employer.

"If their employer doesn't offer a pension they should make it their business to find a pension of their own such as a Self Invested Personal Pension," he added.

The pensions broker was also of the opinion that the recently introduced National Pensions Saving Scheme was an "irrelevance" for graduates.


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