Over three in five (62%) retirees left the workforce before the state pension age of 66 years old, Just Group has found.

Research from the group’s countdown to retirement survey also revealed that a fifth (19%) of retired over-55s said they retired as soon as they started to receive the state pension.

Furthermore, the same proportion (19%) claimed they retired sometime after receiving the state pension.

The Just Group research found that male retirees were more likely to retirement before the state pension, compared to their female counterparts.

Over a third (34%) of those who retired before they reached state pension age said they also withdrew money from their pension between the age of 55 and finishing full-time work, highlighting widespread use of pension cash by many people yet to give up work.

Group communications director at Just Group, Stephen Lowe, said: "The majority of people are retiring before they reach state pension age, putting extra pressure on their retirement finances because they must bridge the income gap between stopping work and starting to receive the state pension.

"Unsurprisingly, our survey also discovered high levels of early pension access with nearly three in 10 (28%) taking money out of their pension before retiring, rising to more than a third of those who stopped working before state pension age."

Meanwhile, data from the Financial Conduct Authority’s retirement income market update raised concerns about the sustainability of income withdrawals.

This showed that two in five (40%) of income drawdown plans were being withdrawn at an annual rate of 8% or over, with 13% seeing regular withdrawals of 6.99%.

Lowe added: "The majority of people using income drawdown strategies are extracting more than 6% a year, substantially higher than benchmark so-called ‘safe’ rates of closer to 3-4% exacerbating concerns about how long people’s pension income will last.

"We would urge people approaching the age when they can access their pension, and those thinking about when they can afford to leave the workforce to seek help before making irreversible decisions."

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