Work and pensions secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, is expected to announce today that the state pension age will rise to 66 for men – as early as 2016.Furthermore, the Government is to raise the option of extending it further, perhaps to 70 and beyond in the following decades. The former Labour Government’s policy was [...]

More: Government to announce state pension age increase

When state retirement age was introduced, it was designed to give people 7 years of state-funded retirement. Nowadays life expectancy for men in the UK is 77, and women is 81. With that in mind, is it appropriate for Britons to complain about this change?

Lifestyles now, of course, are different from when the retirement age was introduced. And the planned change is not 'til 2016.

Of course many would like to retire earlier, but with people living longer all the time we can't afford the massive increase in the number of pensioners there would be if everyone retired at 65.

Another point is I don't see why the retirement age for women is lower. It was originally because women helped out in factories etc during world war 2 while men were fighting - it was a reward for their help. I don't know about you but I'd rather work in a factory than be fighting in a war. And those hitting 60 now weren't even born when the war ended.