Anyone hoping to retire this year will need nearly at least a fifth more income than someone retiring in the last few years.

According to figures from the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PSLA), someone hoping to retire on the minimum amount to allow them to live with some extras, such as a week’s UK holiday and eating out occasionally but no car, has risen by £1,900 (18 per cent) from 2021 to 2022. It’s now £12,800 a year for a single person and £19,900 for a couple.

Someone who wants to be comfortably off in retirement would need £37,300 a year or £54,500 for a couple, up £3,700 and £4,800 respectively over the last year.

A comfortable retirement is defined as having more luxuries such as regular beauty treatments, theatre trips and three weeks’ holiday in Europe a year.

Someone in the middle, wanting a moderate retirement, with more financial security than someone on a minimum income and, for example, a two-week holiday in Europe each year plus a car, would now need £23,300 a year for a single person and £34,000 for a couple — up more than 10 per cent on 2021. All the levels also assume the retirees gets a full state pension.

Nigel Peaple, Director of Policy & Advocacy at PLSA, says: “The past year has been an enormously challenging one for many households in the UK. Inflation has risen to its highest rate in 40 years with the cost of essentials and domestic fuel soaring, putting substantial pressure on incomes for retired households.”

The only chink of light is that as inflation increases so do annuity rates. Many people buy an annuity with their pension savings to provide themselves with an income for life, and income levels rose by more than 50 per cent in 2022.

The PSLA says its figures translate to a couple needing a pension pot of £121,000 each, based on an annuity rate of 6.2 per cent, providing £6,200 per £100,000 of savings, plus their state pensions for a moderate retirement. For a comfortable retirement, a couple would need a pension pot of £328,000 each.

Self-assessment tax returns and the money you owe are due in by midnight on 31 January, and the taxman is not waiving late filing penalties this year.

You need to fill out a tax return if you work for yourself, are a partner in a firm, have untaxed income such as money from a rental property or you earn more than £100,000 a year.

The fine for sending in your tax return up to three months late is £100, and you’ll be charged six percent interest on any late payments of the tax owing.

Pay 30 days late and a five per cent charge is payable on top. The fines then ratchet up to as high as 100 per cent of the tax you owe for filing a year late, plus interest and fees on the debt itself.