Adair Turner suggested that in the future university graduates might have to wait until their seventieth birthday before they will be able to collect a state pension.
In an interview with the Sunday Times, the head of the Pensions Commission said graduates may be asked to work and wait five years longer, even though people who start work sooner, could still retire on a full pension at 65.
The former director-general of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) told the newspaper: "One of the sad facts is that although life expectancy is going up, it is going up least in lower socio-economic groups.
"So we have to be sensitive to that when we put up the state pension age. For example, the person who starts work at 16 would be able to get something at 65. The person who went to university and started serious work at 23 is not going to get it until 70.
"We've got to be wary of saying 'Well, in order to get our numbers to add up without a further tax increase it (the state pension age) has got to be 70 in 2030, end of story'. It's too cavalier in relation to the life expectancy of people at the bottom end of the income scale."
Analysts predict there is currently a £37 billion savings gap a year between what people expect to be earning in retirement and what they are saving.
With this in mind, Mr Turner hinted compulsion might be used to force all workers to save for a pension, with money invested on their behalf by the Government.
The head of the Pensions Commission has since clarified his statement, pointing out that his proposals were more linked to the amount of time people spend in work, rather than whether or not they had attended university.
No pension for graduates before 70
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No pension for graduates before 70
Mon, 23 May 2005
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