SOME Scots are aware their life expectancy is so low they choose not to pay into pension funds, MSPs have been told.
Dave Watson, of Unison, who was an adviser to the Christie Commission on the future of public services, was speaking at a Holyrood Finance Committee session on demographic challenges to pensions.
He said: "There are times when I've addressed large numbers of low-paid workers in the west of Scotland. They've made some very valid points. When you know the life expectancy of most of the people in that room you do wonder why they pay into a pension scheme on occasions."
The Glasgow area has one of the widest extremes of life expectancy between the most deprived and most affluent areas.
A Scottish Executive report from 2006 found an 11-year age gap between Bearsden and Drumchapel, just two miles away.
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