“They have short-term issues with their finances, and then can’t bring the two together to their long term detriment, and that is something we need to look at.”

Mr Webb said he was “looking at is whether I can make pensions more flexible so they don’t always have to be an all or nothing option”.

He wanted to look at “whether some of the issues around early access can be addressed”, he told a conference organised by the Association of British Insurers.

Whitehall sources stressed the access would only be allowed in financial emergencies, although it was not clear whether parents could argue that they needed the cash in an 'emergency' for more mundane needs, like school fees.

One in five are not saving anything for retirement. The Coalition is committed to enrolling automatically up to 10 million workers in a pension scheme from 2012.

Employees over the age of 22 earning more than £5,035 a year will enter their employers’ pension scheme or the National Employment Savings Trust scheme.

The auto-enrolment scheme has so far been delayed pending a review over the summer on whether smaller businesses should be exempt.

Mr Webb, who is leading the pensions reform, said he was trying to reform the system so that it was fairer to women.

He said: “I try to see pensions reform through the perspective of women. Almost everywhere you look in the pensions world women have been the poor relations.

“The auto-enrolment review specifically asks as part of its terms of reference what is the impact on women. I put that in there because the danger is that once again that that perspective is missed.”

Mr Webb said he was worried that women were “missing out on work place provision” in the pension system.”

An annuities review, which is expected to be announced by the Treasury on Thursday, would address “the serial injustice that women have had in the pensions system”.

Mr Webb said: “There is a danger that all pensions do is mirror what has gone on in working life. When people retire now their pensions are reflecting a time post war when men had pensions and women had husbands.”

Mr Webb also said the Government was looking at bringing forward plans to increase the state retirement age to 68. It is currently planned for sometime in the 2040s.