State pension age will be higher than life expectancy if 'triple lock' not axed, say MPs

The so-called 'triple lock' means the benefit currently rises by at least 2.5 per cent a year.

To maintain the cost of increases amid Britain's ageing population the state pension age would have to rise to 70.5 years-old by 2060, according to the Commons Work and Pensions Committee.

That is higher than the current average male life expectancy in 162 neighbourhoods in Scotland and 26 neighbourhoods in England, including in Blackpool, Manchester, Teesside, Leicester, East London and the Wirral.

In Scotland, Glasgow alone has 62 neighbourhoods where male life expectancy is below 70.5, with the lowest - the Parkhead West and Barrowfield area - down to just 62.5.

Committee chairman Frank Field reiterated calls for the "triple lock" to be scrapped and said the policy had "done its job".

The guarantee means the pension income rises by the highest of average earnings, the consumer price index, or 2.5 per cent.

Chancellor Philip Hammond has indicated that while the Government will keep the triple lock for the rest of the current parliament, it will review its future after 2020.

If pensions were indexed to a "smoothed" earnings link - protecting the value of the pension when inflation outstripped earnings - it would save 0.8 per cent of GDP a year, according to research commissioned by the committee.

That would be a real terms reduction £15billion at today's prices, the equivalent to 4p on the basic rate of income tax.

In contrast, the IFS estimated that if expenditure on pensions was to be maintained at current levels of around six per cent of GDP.