A REPORT showing that almost two million pensioners in the UK have less disposable income than an 11-year-old-child has prompted an older people’s champion to urge workers to take out a pension.

Fgures show that more than half of people in the North West are not saving adequately for their retirement, and almost 20 per cent are saving nothing at all.

Brian Todd, chairman of Blackburn with Darwen Older People’s Forum said: “The vast majority of older people in Blackburn and Darwen are living on benefits only and some of them really are in relative poverty.

“These benefits are barely enough, and there’s a lot of pensioner poverty in the area. This is partly because the national pension is far too low, and partly because many do not have their own savings and are surviving on the state pension alone.

“If you are 25 or 35 you think about the here and now. I was lucky in that my employer took pen-sion contributions from my salary and saved for me, but I’m sure that if I were in the same position I would have spent all the money I had.

“But there is absolutely no doubt that people should be saving for the future, otherwise they may regret.”

The ‘State of Retirement’ report, compiled by insurance company LV= showed that 15 per cent of retired British adults currently have an income of £154 or less per week.

Average weekly essential living costs are estimated to be £146.90 by the Office for National Statistics, which leaves these pensioners with less spending money than the average weekly £7.99 pocket money that an 11-year-old receives.

The report revealed that in the North West, despite the fact that 52 per cent of over-50s surveyed have become more concerned about their their level of retirement savings, 20 per cent have decreased the amount that they save over the past 12 months, and 26 per cent do not have a pension at all.