SCOTS will not be able to access their state pension earlier than those elsewhere in the UK despite people north of the Border having a lower life expectancy than those south of it.

In a much-anticipated report that will inform the UK Government’s ongoing review into when and by how much the state pension age should rise, former Confederation of British Industry director general John Cridland said it would be unworkable to set a lower state pension age in areas where people do not live as long.

He also said that suggestions that people with lower life expectancy should be allowed to receive their state pension early at a reduced rate “seems to risk leaving those individuals with an inadequate pension”.

Many in Scotland believe the state pension system discriminates against them because life expectancy in the most deprived areas of Glasgow, for example, is as low as 67.5 while in the wealthiest areas of England it is as high as 83.3.

With the state pension age due to rise to 66 by 2020, that would mean the richest southerners receiving payments for nearly 16 years more than the poorest Scots.

However, in his report Mr Cridland said that the disparity is not as stark as it might seem because those from socially deprived areas contribute less to the system via national insurance payments.

A total of 35 years’ worth of national insurance contributions are required in order to receive the state pension, with current workers’ contributions being used to pay current pensioners’ pensions.

“From the representations we have received, there is a real sense of unfairness that some people, because of low life expectancy, will be disadvantaged if the same universal rules apply to them as to the rest of their age peers,” Mr Cridland said.

“On this issue, analysis from the Pensions Policy Institute suggests that many people do get back from the state pension what they put in through national insurance.

“Even accounting for lower life expectancy amongst socioeconomically disadvantaged groups, on average people reaching state pension age can expect to draw significantly more state pension than they have contributed.

“This remains true for the lowest income and the highest income quintiles, although unsurprisingly the proportion contributed increases as income increases.”

He added: “To an extent therefore, the state pension appears to reconcile systemic variations in life expectancy, which are in the main a symptom of inequalities experienced over the course of people’s working lives, through the contributory benefit system.”

If the Government follows Mr Cridland’s recommendations the state pension age for everyone in the UK, which will already increase to 67 by 2028, will rise to 68 by 2039 rather than 2046 as was originally planned.

In addition, Mr Cridland has recommended that the controversial triple lock, which guarantees that the state pension will rise each year by the higher of inflation, the increase in average earnings or 2.5 per cent, will be scrapped.

David Sinclair, director of the International Longevity Centre-UK, said that while the findings may be shocking to those of working age, “with us living longer and longer lives, we must be prepared for a later retirement”.

Maike Currie, investment director for personal investing at Fidelity International, agreed, noting that when the state pension was introduced in 1908 “we were not expected to live much beyond the age of 50 yet today’s average life expectancy is firmly in the 80s”.

“The population is growing, ageing and living for longer,” she said.

“John Cridland stresses the need for intergenerational fairness given that the workforce of tomorrow will be paying for the pensions of tomorrow’s retirees.”

Despite this, given the longevity and associated health issues in Scotland, if the mooted rises go ahead it could lead to a situation where people in the poorest parts of the country are forced to retire before reaching state pension age. Not only that, they would have to find a way of financing that gap in time too.

Stephen Lowe of retirement planning business Just said: “State pension age is a natural target for people to focus on, but the later this is the more likely they are to be forced to stop work earlier, potentially leaving their financial plans in tatters.

“Today, more than half of people are not in work in the year before they reach state pension age.

“The more you push back state pension age, the bigger this gap becomes for those forced to retire early and the longer they need to rely on their own resources until state pension kicks in.”

In its last independence manifesto the SNP proposed not only paying a higher state pension in Scotland than in the rest of the UK but slowing the rate at which the pension age rises too.

While that would address questions of fairness in the pension system, the fact that the ratio of over 65s to working age people is rising faster in Scotland than the UK as a whole means it may have to reassess those promises should a second referendum go ahead.