Millions of the elderly and people approaching retirement have no pension, no savings and large debts, shocking research reveals today. 

The figures paint a worrying picture of a country with a ballooning population of elderly people who cannot afford to retire, with many surviving on an income of only £25 a day. 

The major study, from insurance giant Aviva, found one in five people over the age of 55 still had a mortgage. 

The average size of their home loan is £60,440, which will wipe out a large chunk of their monthly income. 

The situation is even more bleak for people over the age of 75, with 4 per cent still having a mortgage, with an average of nearly £100,000 outstanding. 

The study also found that the average older person has other debts, such as credit cards and loans, of £2,719. 

The report warns: 'This age group is relying more heavily on credit than previously thought.' The research, which the company conducts every three months, looked at three age groups – 55 to 64, 65 to 74 and those over 75. 

One in five is forced to survive on an income of less than £750 a month, equal to around £25 a day. 

He has been branded a heartless conman and blamed for the Keydata and Lifemark investment scandals that have almost certainly claimed the savings of more than 40,000 people. But now, speaking publicly for the first time since his business plunged into administration last year.

The true culprit in this debacle is, he claims, the Financial Services Authority with its 'armies of half-baked lawyers fresh from college'.

Keydata, says Ford, 45, was shut down by the FSA in 2009 largely because the watchdog was 'desperate to look tough and claim scalps' after it came in for fierce criticism for not policing the banks strictly enough before the credit crisis.

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He claims that the FSA created the mess that has left those 40,000 savers in limbo, not knowing if their money is lost entirely and if it is, which seems likely, whether they will get any money back from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

Nearly ten million people in the UK have paid the wrong amount of tax.

About £2bn was underpaid via the Pay as You Earn (PAYE) system in the past two years, with about 1.4 million people owing an average of £1,500 each.

But £1.8bn has also been overpaid and some 4.3 million people will get a rebate because they have paid too much.

Treasury minister David Gauke said that in the current financial climate, the government was not in a position to "just wave goodbye" to the money owed.

He said the government had inherited the problem and the PAYE system - which was created in the 1940s - was struggling to cope with modern working patterns.