Nigel Green, founder and chief executive of deVere Group, which has 80,000 clients and £6.25bn under management, made his comments following news that ministers are to encourage people to work longer to boost their retirement income so that they are less reliant on the State.

Mr Green said: "With the burgeoning pensions crisis and looming health and care crises, understandably the government needs to do something radical.

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"However, I believe these latest plans announced by the Department for Work and Pensions to increase the average retirement age by as much as six months every year could be flawed.

"These proposals will only really produce the desired outcome for the government if people are able to remain in and continue to be effective in their jobs. This is typically not the case for those individuals in the more manual or physically-demanding jobs.

"In addition, rightly or wrongly, many employers simply do not take on older workers. There is no evidence that this will change. It's harsh, but the chances of being taken back into employment if you lose your job are usually reduced once you reach your mid to late 50s and beyond."

He continues: "This measure is borne out of a desperate need to tackle the UK's pensions, health and care crises and therefore must act as a wake up call for everyone that retirement planning is increasingly a personal responsibility. There needs to be seismic shift in attitudes to saving.

"Failure to do so will likely result in people having to downsize retirement ambitions, or continue working – that is if they can find employment, which is not necessarily as easy for older people as the government would have people believe.