A staggering 1.4 million pensioners – 14% of the pensioner population – live on an income of £5,000 or less each year, according to Prudential. After council tax, water and electricity bills, this leaves only £3,092 per annum – which is equivalent to £59.46 each week or £8.49 a day.

Today the annual income of someone entitled to a full basic state pension at age 65 is less than £5,000 at just £4,381 a year. This highlights the need for today’s workers to save for their future rather than assume they will be able to live comfortably on the state pension alone.

More than 38 per cent (3.6 million people) get by on £10,000 or less, and over half of the British pensioner population live on £15,000 or less each year.

This level of income has forced many pensioners to make cutbacks in their everyday spending – 59 per cent said they had done so in the last six months.

Prudential UK director, Angus Maciver, said: “It’s worrying to think that such a large number of pensioners in this country live on £5,000 or less a year. How many of us could truly say that we could manage on what works out to be just £8.49 a day? What’s more, this struggle isn’t just for a couple of years. Retirement is now roughly 25 years long for the average person, but who wants to spend what’s nearly a third of their life struggling by on less than a ‘tenner’ a day?”