THE POOR-RICH DIVIDE

Low earners face "potential poverty" in old age because they are not building up pensions or savings to supplement the state pension, a report has warned.

Just 16% of men and 27% of women in full-time employment on less than £300 per week belonged to a pension scheme. The Pensions Trends survey suggested that, despite wishing to save for old age, many employees are too stretched to meet day-to-day living costs and cannot afford to put money aside, the ONS said. Participation in private sector pension schemes is falling.

Financial advisor Mark Ryan said: “Because of the squeeze on income and inflation, the cost of living, it’s inevitable that people are struggling to fund the required contribution to build their retirement income because there’s more pressing things to secure their quality of life now. The problem we’ve got is many, many people are hanging on for dear life with regards to outgoings, as soon as interest rates start to go up it’s going to compound the problem."

Times may be tough for millions of Britons struggling with soaring living costs but that hasn’t stopped the number of super-rich from growing. There are now nearly 500,000 mega-wealthy people with plenty of liquid cash on top of their valuable property and pensions, according to the World Wealth Report. These ‘dollar millionaires’ have the equivalent of £625,000 in ‘investable assets’ or ready cash which is not tied up in their homes or pensions. The fortunes of the rich were swelled by the rising stock market prices which followed the recession.

Across the world 10.9million people have a mind-boggling $42.7 trillion between them in their bank accounts. America remains the bastion of the super-rich, boasting 3.4million people worth a total of $11.6 trillion.