Falling life expectancy could help 20m pension savers avoid the threat of an increasing State Pension Age, according to actuarial pensions consultancy LCP.

Picture the scene: a moderately busy suburban branch of a High Street bank in early 2015. A motor cycle courier arrives. He is carrying a large bin bag full of cash, the wads carefully wrapped.

The Pension Freedoms were introduced in 2015 by Chancellor George Osborne and were hailed, at the time, as a “pensions revolution” and the biggest changes to pensions in a century.

A damning report from the National Audit Office out today has revealed that 134,000 state pensioners were underpaid by an average of £8,900 each - with some underpayments dating back to 1985.