Someone purchasing a joint life inflation linked annuity at the age of 65 with £1,073,100 would receive an income of £24,137 a year before tax, according to financial planner William Burrows, of the Retirement Planning Project.

Coupled with the £9,350 state pension, their annual income would be £33,500, falling short of the £33,600 required for a “comfortable lifestyle” according to trade body the Pensionsand Lifetime Savings Association. 

Mark Farrar, 64, a retired teacher, said the lifetime allowance had been a key reason behind his decision to go part time

He said: “What is the point in making additional pension contributions when they take more out in tax?” 

Mr Farrar’s occupational pension was valued just below the £1m mark. However, additional voluntary contributions have pushed him over the threshold. He said: “I will lose a whole chunk of my savings to tax.”

Callum Price, of the Centre for Policy Studies, said: “These figures prove just how unjust the freeze on the lifetime allowance is – a silent tax on thousands of working people who were never meant to be affected by it in the first place.

“The lifetime allowance is a wholly inappropriate restriction to place on defined contribution pensions and in an ideal world, it would be scrapped altogether.

“If the government won’t scrap it, they should at least raise it. A freeze, during a period of soaring inflation, is no more than another tax grab.”