Pensions are a costly problem – and we need to talk about them

Incomes are more unequal among retired people than among the working population. Photograph: Chromorange/Roeder/Alamy

The pensions system has fallen under the gaze of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, and not before time.

Retirement is a vexed subject and little discussed in the UK, where there has always been a feeling among policymakers that a higher birthrate than most developed countries and buoyant levels of immigration – almost exclusively of working-age people – meant Britain was immune to a global problem with ageing.