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The government wants to change how some private sector pensions are calculated.

The proposals mean millions of people would be likely to see lower increases to their pensions in retirement.

Pensions minister Steve Webb said there were plans to link pension payments to the typically slower-growing Consumer Prices Index (CPI) measure of inflation instead of using the RPI.

Accountants KPMG said this could reduce UK private sector pension liabilities by 10% or about £100bn.

The government is to speed up plans to raise the state pension age for men to 66, possibly by as early as 2016.

Ministers will also raise the option of extending it further, perhaps to 70 and beyond in the following decades.

The default retirement age of 65 - at which workers can be legally axed by employers - is also set to be axed.

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith said it was time to "reinvigorate the pensions landscape".

So you know nothing about pensions - except they exist - and you do not have an employer's pension which you can join.

What are the options available to you if you want to do more than rely on the state when you retire?

A clear option is to pay into a personal pension.

This is an investment policy designed to provide a lump sum at retirement and an income for life.

Almost every day comes an announcement by yet another employer that it is going to curtail or even shut its final-salary pension scheme.

Large deficits and rising underlying costs are the usual reason.

A key factor in those calculations is that the pensions that have been promised will have to be paid for much longer.

Why? Because on average our life expectancy continues to rise.