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Think tank says most pensioners have saved more than they need

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THE VAST majority of couples who have retired over the last decade are financially comfortable enough to carry on with their standards of living, according to a leading think tank report published today.

The Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) says that 80 per cent of couples born in the 1940s have annual gross pension income at 65 that replaces at least two-thirds of the average income they earned during their working years.

Yet the figures provoked criticism from Ros Altmann, a campaigner for pensioners, who argues that a focus on couples is unfair due to older women being likely to have had lower incomes than younger generations during their 20s, 30s and 40s.

“If an analysis of single older women. for example, was carried out, relative to their earnings when aged 20-50 the retirement adequacy is likely to look rather different,” Altmann told Morning Wire

Nonetheless, IFS researchers insist that recent pensioners have saved even more than they need.