Eight out of ten workers haven’t even heard of ‘A-day’ and many were negative about the government’s pension reforms, a poll by a financial services company has revealed.

And over 8 million British workers (21%) don’t have any pension provision according to the report from Virgin Money. This is despite continued warnings from the government and the pension industry of the need to save now to avoid inadequate income at retirement.

Chairman, Sir Richard Branson said, "Lots of noise is being made about the pension shortfall but now is the time for action not words. Stakeholder Pensions make it easier for people to start saving for their retirement and yet millions still aren’t saving anything at all."

The financial service company carried out the research to coincide with the launch of their ‘Free for a Year’ pension designed to kick start people into saving for their retirement. Branson hopes the promotion will spur more people into taking action now, "to avoid falling into pensioner poverty later."

The offer, which is available from the 10^th of February 2006, is open to anyone who starts a new Virgin Stakeholder Pension before the 10th of May 2006 and who makes a gross contribution of £1200 or more in their first year. This contribution can include money invested personally, transfers, contributions from employers and the money received from the Government in Pension tax relief. Customers who qualify for the offer won’t pay an annual management charge for their first year.

The poll also asked workers when they planned to retire and it seems John Hutton’s comments last week about an ‘inevitable’ retirement age increase will not go down well. Four in 10 workers (42%) think retirement age should be 60 years old, whilst a similar amount (46%) believe the age should be 65 years old with only 12% agreeing to retirement over 65 years old.

And there could be further bad news for the government, as hopes of ‘A-day’ raising awareness of pension saving might also be dashed as 8 in ten (83%) workers polled haven’t heard of ‘A-day’.

It seems there is a need for the government and the pension industry not only to do more to promote the changes coming in to force on the 6^th of April but in particular those relevant to workers on average incomes.

When asked about one of the higher profile changes within ‘A-day’, that of simplified tax relief limits, a massive 96% of workers felt they’d never be in a position to invest £215,000 or their entire salary into a pension in a year making one of the biggest ‘A-day’ changes largely irrelevant to the vast majority of the working population.

Whereas, the research found the government could do something to instantly boost pension saving as nearly half (47%) of workers said they’d be inclined to save more if the means tested Pension Credit were scrapped.