We are not saving enough for our pensions, says the Government, and it is right. Nearly half of all working-age adults are not saving anything at all, and unless something changes, the next generation of pensioners will be significantly poorer than today’s.

So it is setting up a new Pensions Commission along the lines of the one in 2006 that suggested people working in the private sector should automatically be enrolled in a pension scheme. The Commission will look at the numbers and report on what’s to be done by 2027.

It’s a bleak message and one that cuts right across the way National Insurance has been traditionally presented: that when you are working you pay into a fund that will cover your unemployment and health benefits, and support you with a decent pension in old age.

The problem is that there never was a fund – each generation of working people has always had to........

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