Why fuss about retiring later? Work's good for us

TOO bad, 54 year olds. You may be retiring that bit later than you thought. The state pension age was going to go up from 66 to 67 in 2024 and to 68 by 2046, but it turns out that a review that the Treasury is terrifically keen on would like that brought forward, perhaps to 2035. The Chancellor could break the news in the March budget.

- Melanie McDonagh

But not if the Work and Pensions Secretary has his way; Mel Stride thinks that increases in longevity haven't happened as planned since Covid. And it's life expectancy that's the crucial factor here: when the pension age was originally set at 65 for men, the poor things couldn't expect to last much past 70.

Just as well this isn't France. A few days ago, about a million people took to the streets to complain that President Macron was raising the retirement age to ... 64. Naturally public sector workers were especially prominent: the self-employed rather less so.