31% of British adults do not know how they will finance their needs in later life, including such eventualities as long-term illness, nursing home or care fees and care of others including partners, parents and siblings.

However, NS&I’s latest Quarterly Savings Survey shows that 26.7 million adults in Britain (54%) have started thinking about their financial needs, while 27% of these adults have actually started to put financial plans into practice.

27% who have yet to consider financial planning in later life admit they do not want to think about such events. 23% say they simply have not had time to think about their later life financial needs and 19% prefer to take a short-term view of their finances and use the money they have for the present.

A further 12% don’t consider that this situation will affect them in the near future and believe they will have plenty of time to consider such planning going forward, while 7% of Britons do not consider later life financial planning as important.

43% of Britons who have yet to consider their financial planning in later life admit to having no idea how to finance such needs.

John Prout, NS&I retail customer director, said: “Planning financial needs for later life requires careful consideration in plenty of time. Understandably many people don’t like to think about growing older and the possibility of needing long-term care one day. It can be a distressing and emotive issue to talk about. But with people living well into their eighties, many more of us are likely to need care in the future, and are likely to need to care for others also. Getting the right information as early as possible is to vital to making sure you get the best possible care you can in later life.”

Tish Hanifan, Chairman of the Society of Later Life Advisers (SOLLA), added: “This research reflects the experience of many specialist later life advisers whose clients are primarily concerned with being able to both enjoy their retirement and continue to be able to make choices around their care needs. Undoubtedly the way to achieve this is to begin to factor the costs of having the kind of retirement you want into your financial planning as early as possible.

“An important starting point is for the consumer to have access to as much information as possible. Informed consumers are best able to make the right choices.”