The Institute of Directors (IoD)has called for the government to raise the official retirement age to 70.

In a warning to the government’s Pensions Commission, the IoD claimed the move is needed to fund a rise in the basic state pension.

“The retirement age should not be rigid. In Sweden, as the average rate of mortality rises, so does the pensionable age,” said IoD director general Miles Templeman (pictured).

“The notion that your last job is also your most senior role is wrong. Employers must think of those jobs that are less demanding in terms of time and energy for workers as they approach retirement.”

However, unions said the proposals needed more work. “[The government] could have gone much further by ending arbitrary age-based retirement,” said TUC general secretary Brendan Barber.

“We are also concerned that the right to request to work beyond employer-set retirement ages is too weakly drawn, and will monitor its implementation carefully.

“This extremely cautious response to the European Directive is a missed opportunity to really extend choice by giving people far more control over not just when they finally give up work, but to establish new routes to retirement.”