An ageing population who do not save for retirement was described as a "ticking time bomb" by the chairman of the Life Trust Foundation.

Chairman and former Conservative minister, Lord Hunt of Wirral, said innovative ideas were needed to urge people to save for retirement.

The not-for-profit group, set up to study how to deal with the financial impact of longer life span, wants to analyse all research on the issue.

Lord Hunt said that we were very good at extending life, but not so alert to adding quality to those extra years by making provision for old age.
He said that someone aged 55 had a one-in-two chance of reaching 90, but two-thirds of them had failed to make any financial plans for sustaining themselves later in their retirement.

He added that in two years there would be more pensioners than children in the UK.
"This is not an issue which is going to go away, and we want to play our part in diffusing the ticking time bomb of longevity," he said.