The bank’s survey of 16,000 people worldwide found that two in five working age people (40%) stopped or reduced their retirement savings during the downturn. In addition 22% report debt repayment and slipping into severe financial difficulties have significantly impacted their ability to save for retirement.

Nearly a quarter (23%) of working age people expect their standard of living in retirement to be worse than it is today. Two thirds (66%) of pre-retirees worldwide are concerned about not having enough money to live on day-to-day in retirement, while 69% fear they may run out of money.

One in ten (10%, rising to 16% in Australia) go so far as to predict that they will never be able to fully retire from paid employment.

Charlie Nunn, group head of wealth management, HSBC, said:  ‘While the future health of the global economy still hangs in the balance, it seems that an as-yet unrealised impact of the past decade is still to come. It is worrying for the many people who have just about weathered the storm, to think that this financial hangover could persist – but our research shows that the cumulative effect of lost retirement savings and increased debt is going to be felt by people for many decades to come.’

HSBC’s data suggests UK workers are, on the whole, less concerned about post-retirement financial problems. In the table of retirees who regret not starting to save for retirement earlier, the UK is at the bottom with just 24% expressing regret, compared to a global average of 36%.

However, although 39% of the UK sample of workers said they were well prepared pre-retirement, than proportion drops to 23% among people who are already retired.

There may be greater problems ahead for those retiring in the next few years, after a freedom of information request from financial advisers Hargreaves Lansdown found that only 45% of new retirees will be entitled to the full flat-rate single state pension to be introduced in 2016 during the first five years of its operation.

The ‘single tier’ state pension, aimed at simplifying the system, will see a single payment of about £150 made to new pensioners from April 2016, but some two million people will not get the full amount.

Some with a private or workplace pension provision are contracted out of some of the state second pension, which is being integrated into the new flat-rate state pension. This means they will receive a lower amount. Others have a gap in their National Insurance contributions (NICs). However, from 2016, anyone with insufficient contributions will be able to top up their missing NICs.

Tom McPhail, pensions expert at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: ‘The new state pension will ultimately be a simpler and fairer system. However, in the short term it will be complicated and many people are likely to get less than they may expect.’

The Chartered Accountants’ Benevolent Association (CABA) is reporting rising numbers of calls about debt issues in January and February following the festive season, and is urging accountants to plan their personal finances carefully. CABA is running a debt Q&A on 11 February from 11am to 3pm, on caba.org.uk/letstalk

HSBC’s report, The Future of Retirement: A balancing act, is available via this link: www.hsbc.com/retirement