Baroness Ros Altmann is due to give a prestigious lecture on pensions at London’s University of Westminster.

The former Minister of State for Pensions will deliver the inaugural Orla Gough Annual Lecture and will discuss pensions and whether they are fit for purpose “within a 21st century context.”

The lecture is named after Orla Gough, who was head of department of accounting, finance and governance at Westminster Business School.

She died of breast cancer in 2014.

The lecture, which is free but requires registration to attend, will take place on 18 October from 6.15pm to 8.30pm at the University of Westminster’s Marylebone Road campus.

Baroness Altmann told Financial Planning Today: “I would like to focus my remarks on the importance of pensions in the 21st century.

“Orla Gough was a leading academic in this field and, in her honour, I would like to put forward some of my thinking about how pensions may need to change to fit people’s longer lives.

“As the population ages, and as more people live with debilitating but not life-limiting conditions, a pension may no longer be enough for retirement.

“Until now, all the focus of policy initiatives for retirement needs has been on pensions.

“State Pensions are the bedrock of pensioner income, but a further £40bn a year is spent on incentivising people to save in private pensions to supplement their state payments.

“However, a pension income is not designed to support someone who cannot live independently.

“Whether paying for care at home, or in a care home, pension income is unlikely to be enough.

“Therefore, 21st century retirement planning needs to be about more than conventional pensions.

“It needs ideally to encompass a sum of money set aside in case people need some care in later life.”

Baroness Altmann, who was made an Honorary Doctor of Letters by the university in 2009, added: “There is nothing in the welfare state or in the savings landscape for advance planning to cover this type of provision.

“That is a monumental failure of social policy and is resulting already in over a million people in this country who need care but are not receiving it.

“There are solutions, but no silver bullet.

“Incentivising the build-up of care funds, either within or alongside pensions, is urgently needed.”