Any future decision to raise the State Pension Age (SPA) in the UK should be based on changes in life expectancy for lower earners, says the Association of Consulting Actuaries (ACA).

The industry body believes that any mechanism used to link life expectancy to a higher SPA must not use data derived from projections used for the entire population, as this would be likely to hurt the poorest in society.

ACA Chairman, Stuart Southall, said that the association expected any increase in the SPA to have a “much greater impact” on lower income groups than any other section of society. This, he said was due to the groups’ strong reliance on state provision and need to work on for as long as possible.

“People in this group tend to have shorter life spans and as such are being hit at both ends, being likely to both retire later than their higher income counterparts and die before them,” said Southall.

“As such, we would expect that increasing the SPA will have a disproportionate effect on the poorer in society.”

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