Ms Roma Burke:

I would be relying on my wider understanding of pensions to work out the actuarial cost of reducing the pension age to 65. If the retirement age was brought forward the payment would be made a year earlier and so it would be in payment for longer. If it is assumed that the average male might live until 83, for example, and if he is getting pension increases along the way, the value of that pension is about 30:1. If that is brought forward a year, an extra year's payment is being added to it and all the future pension payments are also being increased so it would probably increase it by at least 10%.