Scots face a longer working life

to keep costs under control. Richard Baker, policy and communications manager at the charity Age Scotland, said: “In bringing forward a rise in state pension age by seven years, the Government is picking the pockets of people in their forties, and these figures show more than half a million Scots will be affected.

“Age Scotland does not see there is an objective case to support this change now. Indeed, new authoritative research has suggested that the long- term improvement in life expectancy is stalling.

“For people affected, their state pension may seem a lifetime away but the fact is that the change announced this week will have a real impact on them later in life.

“Lower life expectancy in Scotland means that this change will also have a disproportionate impact here, and repeated changes to eligibility increases both the injustice that people feel and the risk that more people will struggle to plan and save adequately to maintain a decent quality of later life.”

Many Scots will be in receipt of the state pension for as little as five years.

This is because life expectancy rates in Scotland are lower than elsewhere in the UK, with life expectancy for a man in Glasgow at 73.4 years old.

Dr Anna Dixon, chief executive of the Centre for Ageing Better, said the latest change should spark a renewed debate over the labour market for workers near pensionable age.

She said: “If people are to work for longer, urgent action is needed from Government and employers to make the labour market fit for purpose. Currently older workers are not properly supported at work, and there is a rapid fall in employment rates over the age of 50, with a marked i ncrease in perceived j ob insecurity.

“By the year before people reach state pension age, over half are not working and there are one million people aged 50 to 64 who would like to work but are not, most having left due to poor health, redundancy, or caring responsibilities.

“Employers must introduce flexible working arrangements that allow people to balance these pressures.

“Inequalities in life expectancy and healthy life expectancy mean that many people will find it impossible to work until state pension age, and without additional support or mitigating policies from