ACCORDING to the Office of National Statistics, we are all going to live longer. One in three babies born today are expected to celebrate their 100th birthday; 59,000 men aged 40 and 54,000 women aged 60 now are expected to reach 100.

This all sounds too good to be true and I just don’t think this will happen – the good years are over. All those who are in their late 70s onwards have probably influenced the tables because they have lived through a stable and improved life pattern and had reliable jobs and a decent pension at the end.

All the families I know seem to be under so much stress, with couples both working to pay for an extortionate mortgage and children being brought up by grandparents, who are worn out with this responsibility. How many people in the workplace are treated as commodities? Many work in fear and daren’t even take a day off when they are genuinely ill.

For the Government to start increasing the retirement age to 68 is presumptuous and for many doing physical work is unreasonable. I’m sure it has nothing to do with saving £13 billion a year for each year they delay our pension age?

Keith Massey, Mill Lane, York.