The retirement income of over a third of people set to stop working this year will place them below the poverty line, fresh research suggests.

Research conducted by insurance company Prudential suggests that about 35% of people who retire in 2011 will get a pension of less than £14,400, the base level of income a single person requires according to Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

Meanwhile, millions of people are being denied the chance to plan properly for their retirement due to Government proposals to accelerate increases to the state pension age, charity Age UK warned.

Women are significantly more likely to retire in poverty than men, the research found. It said that 40% of women expect to have incomes of below £14,400 a year, compared with 30% of men.

According to estimates, the changes will affect around 5 million people, costing the worst affected women up to £10,000 in lost pension income. It is expected to force greater hardship still on people who are reliant on the state pension, those from poorer backgrounds who have lower life expectancy and those who are too ill or disabled to work.

The charity said the plans not only broke a promise made in the Coalition Agreement, but they would not have any impact on the deficit as no savings would be made before 2016, by which time the Government plans to have already eliminated it. More worryingly, some women still mistakenly thought they would be able to start drawing their state pension at 60.

Michelle Mitchell, Age UK's charity director, said: 'By breaking its promise on the state pension age, the Government is hurting millions of hard-working people who believed their retirement was just around the corner.

"MPs must wake up to the unfairness of these proposals and the level of anger simmering away in their constituencies.Given that life expectancy is increasing, the Government is right to look at reforming the pensions system. But this is too much, too soon."

:: Research Plus questioned 1,005 people planning to retire during 2011 in December for Prudential.