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Rising debts and poor pensions will lead to a new kind of “anthill” family, with many generations living and working together, a report said yesterday.

“Anthill” households will lead to parents and grown up children pooling mortgages, bills and even pensions so that everyone can retire with a comfortable income.

The report, by trend forecasters The Future Laboratory, suggests that families will deal with the pensions crisis by pooling their resources into “fractional pensions”, which would allow families to pay collectively into one pot and then benefit from larger rewards.

“As 30 somethings fail to invest in pensions and an ageing population spends its children’s inheritance, we are seeing families moving back in with each other and sharing the cost of home and mortgage,” the report said.

There is already evidence that, as house prices rise, children are delaying moving out of their parents’ homes and some are also being forced to move back in after years of independence.

Louise McRae, from Chelmsford, is a member of one of these new families. She is 28 and has returned to her parents’ home while she works in the voluntary sector, which should help her to get a good full time job. She does not pay any rent, but helps out in the house.

“My parents are lovely but it’s difficult not to regress to being a teenager,” she said. However, she says she is scared by rising house prices and the fact that she does not own her own home. “I am approaching 30 and really want to get settled. But living in south east England it just isn’t possible.”

The report said that current economic and social conditions would create new groups of people including “elder preneurs”, who would start businesses late in life because they are concerned about their lack of savings. Older people are already responsible for 50 per cent more business start ups than they were 10 years ago and the trend is likely to continue.

Another new group will be the “bridge careerists”, who are trying to find ways to avoid giving up work in their 60s, finding new careers to work into their 70s.

Full story from the Telegraph