Britain’s self-employed workers are among the most creative, resourceful and entrepreneurial in the world. Yet while they spend their working lives planning, adapting and taking risks, millions are quietly overlooking the one plan that arguably matters most: their own financial future.

The evidence is stark. Only about one in five self-employed people in the UK are saving into a pension.

A Freedom of Information request I submitted to HM Revenue & Customs shows that this problem isn’t confined to those on low incomes either. Some 61 per cent of self-employed people paying higher-rate tax (those earning over £50,271 a year) are not contributing to a pension. Even among additional-rate taxpayers earning more than £125,140, only about half are saving.

This isn’t simply an income problem. Of course, a big reason many self-employed workers don’t save is that they miss out on the nudge — or rather, the shove — of automatic enrolment.

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Having spent time as a freelancer myself, I understand the pressures. When you spend months chasing clients for payment, committing to a regular pension contribution can feel impossible. And yet, without adequate pension savings, large numbers of self-employed workers face working well into their late sixties and seventies.

Ill health, caring responsibilities or a downturn in demand could turn a thriving business into a financial cliff edge overnight. We must find a way to avoid more generations of entrepreneurs facing a retirement marked by insecurity rather than choice. What’s more, this bleak outlook is not inevitable — nor is it the international norm.

Analysis by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) suggests that, out of 38 developed economies, the UK has one of the largest gaps between employees and the self-employed when it comes to pension provision.

The OECD compared the theoretical pensions of employees and self-employed workers across 38 countries, assuming they contribute only what is the mandatory, or semi-mandatory, minimum in each system.

The UK ranked eighth from the bottom. A self-employed worker here would end up with only half the average pension of an employee. Compare that with countries including Estonia, Finland, New Zealand and Canada, where there was no gap at all. In Hungary, Austria and Luxembourg, the self-employed could theoretically retire with bigger pensions than employees.

So, what can we learn from abroad about helping Britain’s entrepreneurs retire with dignity? Four lessons stand out.

1. Make it simple

On the surface, New Zealand’s pension system is not so different from our own. Employees are automatically enrolled into KiwiSaver, a workplace retirement scheme, with the option to opt out. Like in the UK, the self-employed are not automatically enrolled, yet in New Zealand 44 per cent choose to join anyway. That’s more than double the UK figure of 20 per cent of self-employed workers who voluntarily pay into pensions.

KiwiSaver members benefit from government top-ups, much as UK savers benefit from tax relief. But the real difference lies in simplicity and branding. KiwiSaver isn’t just a product, it’s a shared national reference point for saving, repeatedly reinforced by government, employers and pension firms.

There are clear default funds, reducing choice paralysis for busy entrepreneurs, and straightforward contribution rules, with no need to understand marginal tax rates or annual allowances. Crucially, if someone is auto-enrolled as an employee and later becomes self-employed, their KiwiSaver account follows them. They simply keep contributing, rather than having to start again.

The system isn’t perfect, and New Zealand readily admits there is more to do. But the direction of travel is worth studying.

2. Consider the realities of self-employed income

In Austria and Luxembourg, the self-employed could theoretically end up with larger pensions than employees. That’s because of a subtle but important design choice: contributions are calculated using gross income, rather than net income after expenses.

Many countries base self-employed contributions on net income, which inevitably lowers pension saving. Critics argue that using gross income is unfair to entrepreneurs with high costs, but the counter argument is compelling.

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Pension systems exist to prevent old-age insecurity, not to mirror business accounting. Using gross income recognises that the self-employed are effectively both worker and employer rolled into one — and that flexibility while working must be balanced by adequacy in retirement.

3. Build in flexibility

Self-employment income is volatile. People move rapidly from feast to famine and back again, so their need for flexibility is great.

Poland has recently introduced a policy of so-called pension holidays for some self-employed workers. Eligible entrepreneurs can pause social security contributions for one month a year during difficult periods, with the state stepping in to preserve their pension record.

This model wouldn’t translate directly to the UK, where private pension saving is voluntary, but it highlights a vital principle: flexibility matters.

Could we allow UK entrepreneurs to access a small, capped portion of their pension savings in an emergency? Could we give them higher contribution limits to account for their “feast and famine” income? These are the questions to be asking.

Make nudges timely

Timing matters as much as policy design. For the self-employed, there are few moments of greater financial focus than submitting a tax return.

In the United States, a series of Refund-to-Savings pilots tested this insight. Taxpayers were prompted, at the point of filing, to divert part of their tax refund directly into a savings or retirement account. When people were asked to make a simple, concrete choice before the money reached their bank account, saving rates rose sharply.

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The lesson is clear. If we want the self-employed to save, we should nudge them precisely when attention is highest.

The good news is that the UK Pensions Commission has indicated that it will examine how to boost retirement saving among the self-employed. Getting the balance between acting swiftly and coming up with a solution that suits most people is hard. But with every year that passes, thousands more entrepreneurs edge closer to a retirement shaped by necessity rather than choice. The UK still has time to act — and to start learning from what has worked elsewhere.

Marianna Hunt is a personal finance specialist at the investment firm Fidelity International