The cost of a ‘comfy’ retirement is £43k a year

A comfortable retirement now costs £43,000 a year as rising food and energy bills push up the cost of living, a study suggests.

A single retiree faces paying £5,800 more than last year to maintain the same standard of living owing to inflation – a record annual jump of 15.5pc.

A retired couple would need a combined income of £59,000 to live comfortably in retirement today thanks to economies of sale.

This is £4,500 more than last year, according to the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association ( PLSA), a trade body.

This would require a combined pension pot of £ 870,000, based on current life expectancies and annuity rates, according to separate calculations by Nucleus Financial.

A single 65-year- old would need a nest egg of £635,000 to maintain an income of £43,000 until they die.

The “comfortable” standard of living covers energy, food and clothing costs, as well as an annual two-week holiday in Europe and £50 per birthday or Christmas present.

The rising cost was fuelled by higher energy and grocery bills, as well as the surging price of holidays and motoring, according to the PLSA.

Less well- off retirees also face higher costs. For a single person to cover their basic needs, they would need £ 14,400 a year, a 12.5pc rise, according to the report.

This is more than the full new state pension, which will increase by 8.5pc to just over £11,500 in April.

The “minimum” standard of living in retirement covers basic needs, including a week-long UK holiday, £50 a week for groceries and £100 a year to maintain a property.

People targeting a “moderate” living standard, which gives a little more flexibility, recorded the biggest increase in retirement costs to £31,300 a year – an £ 8,000 rise, equivalent to 34pc.

Nigel Peaple, of the PLSA, said: “It’s important for workers saving for retirement to remember the standards are not prescriptive targets; they are a tool to help you engage with the type of spending you think you will do in retirement and to help you plan.”

Experts have warned that many workers have not built up sufficient private savings to help fund their desired retirement.

Around 3.5m private sector employees do not pay anything into a pension in a given year, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

The International Longevity Centre think tank has said that Britain’s 14m members of “Generation X” – born between 1965 and 1980 – save just £200 a month into their pension pot on average, and that a third of this group were at high risk of retiring on insufficient income.

A government spokesman said: “Automatic enrolment has succeeded in transforming pension saving – and we are supporting proposals to expand this even further, enabling millions to save more, earlier.”