British workers are saving less for retirement than European counterparts with a third saying they cannot afford to put more into pension savings, according to new research.

A quarter of British pension savers said they were already saving as much as they could every month, the M&G Wealth study found.

Kirsty Anderson, pensions expert at M&G Wealth, said: “Many in the UK are telling us they simply can’t afford to save more for retirement and, with rising inflation continuing to diminish people’s savings and spending power, it’s only getting tougher.”

The ‘Retirement Revisited’ study explored the financial risks people face in retirement across the UK, France, Italy, Germany and Spain.

While a third of UK respondents said that affordability was the main barrier to saving more that figure was significantly higher than those in Italy (22%), Germany (27%), Spain (27%) and France (28%).

While 31% of Spaniards said they were saving as much as they could every month, only 24% of Brits were.

The study also considered whether the lack of retirement savings is a bigger risk for women than men.

While the cost-of-living crisis has caused 18% of people overall to say they will work beyond normal state pension age, the issue is a much bigger concern for female workers in the UK with 21% of women stating they would work on, compared to just 15% of men.

When it comes to saving, 27% of UK men have set up an ISA to save for retirement compared to only 18% of women. Meanwhile just 9% of UK women surveyed have set up a private pension - almost half the number of men (17%).

Only 11% of UK women had increased their workplace contributions compared to 16% of men, a trend that was echoed in other European countries.

In France and Italy, twice as many men than women are actively putting money into their workplace pension.

Kirsty Anderson said that something that still tends to be an issue for women is making sure that they keep contributing to their pension when they take career breaks.

• The research was carried by Opinium among 900 UK adults (18+) with 500 of them planning on retiring in the next 12 months. Research was also conducted with adults in France, Germany, Spain, and Italy.