A new report has revealed that a staggering 12 million Britons are not saving enough for retirement, leading many experts to predict that millions of British workers will be condemned to a miserable and poverty-stricken retirement.

Figures from the Association of British Insurers (ABI) and accountancy firm Deloitte showed that 45 per cent of British workers are not contributing enough to their pension funds to provide a comfortable standard of living in their retirement.

Nearly eight million people, or 29 per cent of British workers are not contributing anything to a pension scheme, while an additional 4.3 million are failing to contribute enough.

In a bid to address this pressing issue the government has unveiled a range of measures designed to resolve the UK pensions crisis.

Under the proposals all employees will be automatically enrolled in a pension plan, with the employee contributing four per cent of their salary, their employer contributing three per cent and the government contributing one per cent through tax relief.

However, the proposals have been met with mixed reactions, as experts have predicted that women and self-employed workers in particular will find themselves considerably worse off.

At present many companies contribute more to their employees' pension than three per cent of their salary, but an ABI report has found that one in four employers would consider reducing their contributions to the statutory minimum.

This, the ABI has claimed, would result in 2.4 million Britons being considerably worse off in their retirement.

Women and self-employed workers are expected to be the worst affected of all, a study by Scottish Widows and the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) has found.

Self-employed workers have no employer to contribute to their pension scheme, so will effectively be accruing around half the value of that being saved by workers in full-time employment.

The irregular working patterns of many women results in them being far less likely to have a record of continuous contributions to their pension scheme - a fact that will hit their income in retirement.

Jenny Watson, chair of the Equal Opportunities Commission, was quoted by the Guardian saying: "Women pay a high price for the complex and unpredictable lives they lead.

"The gender pay gap throughout women's and men's working lives becomes an even bigger pensions gap in retirement, as most women face the financial penalties for doing unpaid work caring for dependent children or older relatives or spending time in low-paid, often part-time work."

Ultimately, British workers are responsible for their own retirement planning, with neither the state pension or employer-based schemes likely to guarantee a comfortable retirement.

And with speculation that the Basic State Pension will not even exist when today's young workers reach retirement, people are being urged in the strongest possible terms to start saving now.