A researcher into ageing is calling for the government to scrap the pension age and instead base entitlement on the number of years someone has worked.

The Commons is due to debate the Pensions Bill, which would see the entitlement age for women rise from 60 to 65 by 2018, and then increase to 66 for both sexes by 2020 to cover increasing costs as more Britons live longer.

Oxford professor of gerontology Sarah Harper is one of the authors of a report into the impact of increased life expectancy on pensions entitled Living longer and Prospering?.

She said life expectancy was increasing by about three years a decade, and it was clear the pensions system needed to be adjusted.

"The state pension age does tend to influence when people retire," she said.

"It's ridiculous retiring in our 50s when we're living to 100."

But she said raising the pension age would not reflect the discrepancies in individuals' life expectancy, and it would be fairer to move the pensions system away from age and instead relate it to the number of years worked.

"The idea that we clump everyone together and say everyone at 65 is the same has no evidence at all," she said.

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