While we wait for the Budget and its threatened changes to pensions taxation with bated breath, it’s worth remembering that the public is beginning to accept that retirement, while not yet extinct as a notion, is not quite what it was.

A new survey has found that over two thirds of pension savers believe that retiring in their sixties, once a given, is becoming a thing of the past.

What impact the Budget may have on retirement plans remains to be seen, and most rumours I suspect will be wrong, but I very much hope the Labour government increasingly not see pension savers as a ripe target for extra taxation to fill a gap in the Treasury coffers.

If it does, many may begin to see even retiring in their seventies as a distant dream.

The survey, by Canada Life, suggests many are sceptical about retiring in their early sixties and have rather mixed feelings about living longer. Most just wanted to live to age 85, just a few years long than the current natural life expectancy, which ONS figures suggest this week took a bit of a dip during the pandemic, at least in terms of averages.

A bigger question is not how longer we may live but what will the quality of life be in retirement? And here the UK has a bigger challenge - our pensions are simply not big enough, on average, for what most people want to do in retirement.

The UK State Pension has risen significantly in recent times thanks to the Triple Lock but remains one of the poorest state pensions among the major European nations. Spain’s is more than double the UK’s.

Apart from the State Pension most Britons rely on an often messy mish mash of private schemes, some company derived, others private such as SIPPs and auto-enrolment schemes. It's no wonder the UK has 3.3m ‘lost’ pensions, according to the Pensions Policy Institute this week.

There may be little alternative to people working longer, paying more tax in later life and pushing back retirement plans but it needs a national debate. I’ve often voiced the view that for many people working part time in later life, if they want to, is a wise move, keeping them active mentally and physically and boosting their income in their latter years.

I haven’t changed my view on this but there is a balance to be had between the ability of people to work for longer voluntarily because they wish to and those who feel compelled or forced to work into their seventies because their tax bill keeps going up or the income they expected is so much lower than they need.

Better retirement planning can make all the difference to lifestyles in retirement but the government needs to tread a fine line between fostering an older worker culture among the population and making pensions so disappointing they discourage from saving for retirement in the first place. Over to you Mrs Reeves.

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Kevin O’Donnell is editor of Financial Planning Today and a journalist with 40 years of experience in finance, business and mainstream news. This topical comment on the Financial Planning news appears most weeks, usually on Fridays but occasionally other days.  Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Follow @FPT_Kevin >Top Tip: Follow Financial Planning Today on Twitter / X @_FPToday for breaking news and key updates