The financial pressure young people are under is making it increasingly difficult for them to be able to save for the future, it has been claimed.

A spokesperson for The Pension Advisory Service (TPAS), a non-for-profit organisation which provides free information, advice and guidance on saving for retirement, has suggested that the ability of young people to put money aside in a savings account or pension scheme has been restricted as they have less money available to them to do so than previous generations.

The two most pressing concerns for young people, the spokesperson believes, are repaying debt accrued during their time at university and financing the climb onto the first rung of the property ladder.

A report conducted by the Student Loans Company in June this year found that £2,567.6 million was lent to eligible students in higher education during the financial year 2006-07, an increase of 4.2 per cent on 2005/06 levels. It was also found that there are now 2.5 million student loan borrowers, 1.5 million of which are in the process of repaying the money owed.

Meanwhile, research conducted by building society Stroud & Stroud suggests that the average first-time buyer will be forced to pay in excess of £1 million for a home by the year 2024. However, TPAS has urged young people to try as much as possible to put day to day savings aside into a designated account with retirement in mind.

"There are too many competing calls on young people's money," the spokesperson confirmed.

"There has always been an element of people coming out of university with some debt but that has increased more dramatically with all the change in the funding of university.

"That has been a big change; if you have university debts to pay off. The cost of trying to get into the property market is so much more expensive; people now are taking on mortgages the size of which young people wouldn't have contemplated ten years ago.

"The message has to be getting across to people that irrespective of the fact that they may be more mobile, particularly in their younger years, they still need to try and start, as early as possible, planning for retirement."

"The longer you leave it, the more difficult it is," the spokesperson concluded, in what can be seen as a stark warning to young people who are reluctant to save.