Hundreds of thousands of people in the UK may be unaware that they have an extra pension - a London firm of chartered accountants claimed.

The claim comes in the wake of a report by the Pensions Policy Institute, which highlights the complexity of state pensions system.

A senior partner at the Blick Rothenberg, Steven Bruck said: "With the decline in value of insurance company funded schemes, people are becoming increasingly worried that by the time they retire they will have little or no pension to speak of.”

“What many of them don't realise is that they may get a state pension worth up to £6,500 year in addition to the basic pension of up to £4,000, and their entitlement under any personal or employer schemes.”

This extra pension arises because many people who were in private or employers pension schemes failed to contract out as they were entitled to do and continued to pay ‘contracted in’ National insurance contributions, (SERPS) which has been in existence since 1978, without realising it.

Steven Bruck added: "They could therefore be much better off than they realise. The report issued by the PPI is quite right in its assumption that the whole thing is far to complicated.”

“Many people are more concerned about their future than they need be and could receive an extra £7,500 on top of the state pension of up to £4,000. Unlike private pensions schemes no annual advice is given of such entitlement.”

"Anyone who worked for a company which did not have a company pension scheme would have been in SERPS said Bruck."

"The state scheme is too complicated; nobody has an idea what he or she is entitled to. Any one in any doubt as to what their benefits are can contact the benefits agency request form BR 19, fill it in, and a statement of benefits will be sent back."