So the idea of locking up your cash for a few decades while you struggle to pay rent or save for a house is not that attractive.

The pension freedoms announced in the 2014 Budget helps address these negative views. The industry has generally responded positively to the reforms, as the sector feels it encourages people to save for their futures and opens up the possibility of clients continuing to invest after they retire.

Of course, changes that affect people’s retirements are never going to be 100 per cent foolproof or make everyone happy. For example, a more recent pension change, allowing people to cash in their annuities, is perhaps a step too far.

A consultation on how this market would work is currently ongoing, with responses due by June 18 this year, but as experts point out, an annuity is essentially a defined benefit for the rest of the recipient’s life, so why would someone give that up and how much value would they actually get from it?

Meanwhile, politicians’ constant tweaking of pension policies is making it more difficult for people to understand the tax implications of making use of the new rules and how they will affect other benefits.

For instance, last month the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) issued a two-page document that highlighted some interesting points.

One of the new rules allows people to pass on their pension pots to beneficiaries without incurring the 55 per cent tax charge. As a result, some grandparents might seek to minimise the income they draw in order to maximise the amount to pass on to their descendants.

But the DWP paper highlights a deprivation rule, where it states that if you spend, transfer or give away any money that you take from your pension pot, it “will consider whether you have deliberately deprived yourself of that money in order to secure (or increase) your entitlement to benefits”.

If the DWP decides you have deliberately deprived yourself, “you will be treated as still having that money and it will be taken into account as income or capital when your benefit entitlement is worked out”.

So those relying on additional pension benefits to supplement their retirement while squirreling money away for their beneficiaries is something the authorities will keep a close eye on.

Equally, the tax implications of taking either income or a lump sum from a pension and how it affects your marginal rate of income tax are issues that will need to be addressed.

The investment industry is currently working on a number of ways to help future pensioners remain invested in the market and provide income, but investors will need to be aware of how these investments and resulting income will affect their wider finances.

But with a general election less than a month away, a bigger question will be whether these pension policies are here to stay for the long term.

Nyree Stewart is features editor at Investment Adviser