Graduates might have to wait until they are 70 before drawing a state pension, while those who have not been to higher education would retire at 65, the head of the Pension Commission has suggested.

Adair Turner said that difference in retirement ages would reflect the fact that professionals live about five years longer than unskilled workers, he said.

Turner told the newspaper: “One of the sad facts is that, although life expectancy is going up, it is going up least in lower socio-economic groups.

"So we have to be sensitive to that when we put up the state pension age.”

The former CBI chief said a person who worked from the age of 16 would be able to draw a full pension at 65, but “the person who went to university and started serious work at 23 is not going to get it until 70. It really is the number of years in the workforce."

Chancellor Gordon Brown dismissed the interview as “speculation”.

Brown stressed there was a need to build a consensus between politicians of all parties, business and employees if the commission recommended significant changes to the pensions system.

The Pension Commission final report is due in the autumn.