Steven Cameron, of the pension provider Aegon, said it would be a “disaster” if the policy handed early state pension ages to areas where manual labour, and lower life expectancies, were more common.
“It would be an absolute disaster if people in Glasgow get their state pension earlier than those in London,” he said. “That would not be seen as fair by anyone.”
A fairer policy would be to introduce an early-access age for everyone, regardless of their career history, Mr Cameron said.
“It takes away the subjectivity of what might qualify as a physically demanding role,” he said. “You might think of a bricklayer first, but nursing jobs too often require physical strength.
“People also do not stay in the same job for their whole lives – what if you have worked in manual labour for 20 years, and then in a call centre for the next 15?”
Mr Cameron added that the Government already allowed people to defer their state pension in exchange for higher payments. “Why not flip that over and allow people to take it at an earlier, reduced rate instead?” he said.
The Government said that a universal state pension age was a clear signal to those planning for retirement, but that it would keep the position of those unable to work up to this age “under review”.
The report comes as the Government faces growing pressure to control spending on pensioner benefits. Next month, the state pension will rise by a record 10.1pc, pushing the full new state pension past £10,000 per year for the first time. The increase is expected to cost the Treasury an extra £11bn.
Baroness Neville-Rolfe also recommended that spending on the state pension should be capped at 6pc of gross domestic product. It currently accounts for 4.8pc of GDP, but is expected to surpass 6pc in just three decades.
A cap would force the state pension age up to 69 by 2048, the report found. However, the Government has said that the cap, if met through state pension age rises, could disproportionately impact those with lower life expectancies, and should be considered more fully.
