For most workers a pension is a vague faraway thing; any emotion is just about the cost of saving.

The lack of interest is perhaps understandable, but the world may look very different when retirement comes. What might a pension mean in the decades ahead?

Even now, change is imminent, with the Pension Schemes Bill currently working its way through Westminster and investment prospects also uncertain. And next month, many of those with pensions pots or already receiving pensions can expect to be hit in the Autumn Budget.

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All this political attention is not addressing public distrust – the more the pensions landscape changes, the more that workers wonder whether the pensions concept will be relevant when they retire.

Can individuals reasonably plan for retirements that may begin 40 or 50 years in the future if the policy and tax framework undergoes constant revision? And if today’s retirees see tax rules changed retrospectively, why should today’s workers trust that rules won’t change again before they retire?

Research by The Institute and Faculty of Actuaries has identified a troubling erosion of confidence in pension provision. This suggests that almost half of young workers believe the state pension will not exist when they reach retirement age. Long-term financial planning looks more like an exercise in speculation rather than prudent foresight. What Britain needs is not another round of tinkering with rules and tax but a fundamental reconceptualisation of pensions with cross-party commitment to policy stability.

While Westminster drives pensions policies, the impact matters for Scots because Scotland’s population is ageing faster than most regions of the United Kingdom.

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Projections show substantial increases in the proportion........

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