It currently takes 3.5 working taxpayers to support one of the country's 10.6 million OAPs. This ratio will fall sharply in the coming years as medical advances enable more people to survive into an unprecedentedly extended old age.
The message is clear: To avoid drastically reduced living standards in retirement, more individuals will have to do more to finance their declining years and be given incentives by a government which will tackle the pensions time-bomb with boldness, honesty and candour.
The past three years have demonstrated the government has no coherent pensions strategy and its stealth taxes have resulted in a dramatic collapse in the level of personal savings.
The basic state pension should not be seen as an important source of income in old age but a useful extra.
-Doreen Radford, Eastern Road, Brighton
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