Some 840,000 retired couples in the UK are "pension millionaires", according to research from Aegon.
The provider’s analysis, based on figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), showed the richest 20 per cent of pensioners have an average weekly income of £936, or an annual income of £48,672.
These values include all sources of income such as pensions, investments and state pension.
To replicate this weekly income through an annuity, a couple retiring today at age 65 would need to have a pot worth around £1m, Aegon said.
Steven Cameron, pensions director at Aegon, said: it is "no wonder we’re often said to be living in a golden age for pensioners" because many of these people will have benefited from the provision of defined benefit pensions and above inflation increases to the state pension.
He said: "As our figures highlight, this golden age does not apply to everyone and there’s a big and growing difference between the weekly incomes of the richest 20 per cent of pensioners and the poorest 20 per cent.
"Defined benefit pension schemes, while common in the past, were by no means universal and many of those pensioners on the lowest incomes will have missed out on these arrangements."
The analysis also highlighted that the income gap between the richest and poorest pensioners has increased over the last 10 years.
While the richest couples have an average weekly income of £936, the poorest 20 per cent have a weekly income of £257.
The richest pensioners have seen their incomes increase 21 per cent over the last ten years from £774, while the poorest have seen only a 15 per cent increase from £224.
Over the same period the average pensioner couple has seen their weekly income increase 18 per cent, from £487 to £576, the provider said.
Aegon’s research is in line with data published by other providers, such as Aviva, which recently concluded that the top 10 percent of retired households now receive 27 times more gross income from private pensions than the bottom 10 percent.
Differences in income between public and private pensioners are also increasing, recent data from ONS shows.
The difference between the median value of pension wealth of employees in the public sector, when compared to its peers in private companies, almost doubled in two years.
maria.espadinha@ft.com
