BRITAIN is facing a pensions and retirement “time bomb,” amid concerns about how increasing the state pension age will affect workers, Unite warns.

The union said that its research showed that many would not be able to continue working in key roles if a planned rise in the state pension age to 68 is brought forward.

A survey of more than 10,000 Unite members in construction, health, passenger transport and the road haulage and warehousing sector produced “overwhelming evidence” that workers do not believe they can continue in their present jobs to the existing state pension age of 66-67, let alone any later, said the union.