As long ago as 2004, the Pensions ommission identified that female pensioners in the UK are "significantly poorer'' than men. More recently, in February this year, pensions minister Steve Webb said that women get "rotten pensions'' compared with men and will do so for "some years'' to come.

There are a number of reasons for this but one is undoubtedly the disparity in earnings between men and women. Private pensions – whether defined benefit or defined contribution – are based on income. It follows that a woman who fails to progress to the senior position that she deserves, will feel the effects of that discrimination not only during her working life but also during her retirement.

Older drivers have reduced their average annual mileage by a fifth since the credit crunch started, with the average over 50 now driving around 5,389 miles a year, down from 6,561, seven years ago, research by Saga Car Insurance found.

The over 50s are doing a number of things to reduce the cost of running a car including: looking for the cheapest places to fill up (47%), leaving the car and walking more often (36%) and using public transport (35%).

Twenty million kilos of Cathedral City cheddar will now back up pension funds of workers at Dairy Crest, one of the UK's biggest cheesemakers.

Some 20,000 pallets of the cheese, nearly half the company's total stock, have been pledged to the pension fund trustees.

The cheese is made in Cornwall, but matured in a warehouse in Warwickshire.

It is kept on the shelves there for 12 months.

In the event of the pension fund running into financial trouble, the trustees will now be able to sell blocks of cheddar to make up the shortfall.

'Parensioners' - men and women having children in their 40s, 50s, 60s and beyond, and who will be at retirement age while they are still financially supporting their offspring - join a string of celebrities such as Elton John and Halle Berry who have put off starting a family.

In the 20 years between 1992 and 2012, the number of people having children after the age of 40 (45 for men) has risen by 298% for women and 149% for men.

One in 20 men over 50 now counts as part of a new class of the “unretired” who tried retirement but decided it was not for them and simply went back to work.

Boredom in retirement is sending men back to work, a study has suggested.

Financial troubles and missing the workplace may also lie behind a rise in people becoming ‘unretired’.

One in 20 men aged between 50 and 74 has decided to go back to work, according to research presented to the Royal Economic Society’s  conference in London.

Women who retire this year will typically be forced to survive on an annual income which is a third lower than the average man’s income, a shocking report warns today. 

It highlights the nightmare facing a generation of women who are going to suffer a penny-pinching, rather than comfortable, retirement despite a lifetime of hard work.

More than 8,500 adults, including 1,000 who will retire this year, were asked how much money they expect to get when they stop work.

While a man expects to get an average of £18,250 a year, the average woman expects to get just £11,750.

Far from being 'over the hill' today's 50-something women say they feel better with age.

Sex, wellbeing and relationships have all improved for many women after they reached their half century, according to new research.

Playtex quizzed 1,500 British women aged 20 to 65 and found those 50-plus were more happy, vivacious and adventurous than ever before.

With rising state pension age, we have all been warned we will be working longer in the future.

But that doesn’t bother Albert Billington, who is happy being one of Britain’s oldest workers.

At 90 years old he shows he is still a very handy man to have around - working at DIY store B&Q.

Anna (not her real name) lives an enviable life in many ways. She works out at least four times a week, and with her long blonde hair and thoughtfully applied make-up, she could easily pass for 10 years younger than her actual age of 58. Since taking early retirement from her management job she has enjoyed frequent jaunts abroad and though she recently ended a relationship with a younger partner, she hopes to have a new lover one day.

But if that makes her sound like she is living a sort of mid-life dream, think again. Anna is HIV positive.

Unemployed people in their 50s are finding their desperate hunt for a job ‘made worse’ by a key Government rule change, a damning report warned yesterday.

Before the change, a boss could ask a worker to leave from the age of 65, known as the ‘default retirement age’, as long as they had been given six months’ notice.

Since October 2011, no worker can be asked to leave simply because they have reached the traditional retirement age of 65, which means they can stay into their 70s, 80s and beyond.

But the Government stressed that 85 per cent of these women, born between April 6 1952 and July 5 1953, would still receive more in state pension, by up to £20,000, as they will retire earlier than men. Tens of thousands of women, though, are expected to be worse off. Ministers are bringing in sweeping changes with a new “flat rate” pension of about £144 a week from 2017.

Millions of baby boomers are approaching retirement wishing they had been more money savvy when they were younger.

Showing it is not just younger adults who should worry about retirement income, one in five over 55s have told a Standard Life survey that not saving for retirement earlier is their 'biggest money regret'.

This amount rises even higher among adults of all ages who are saving into a personal pension rather than being part of a workplace scheme, with a quarter wishing they had started saving earlier.

More than 300,000 people who are aged 70 and above have a job, with many blaming the fact they are too poor to stop working, official figures revealed yesterday.

The ballooning number of older workers highlights a social revolution in Britain with people forced to work at an age when many assume they would have stopped years ago.

The figures, compiled exclusively for the Daily Mail by the Office for National Statistics, shows 193,000 men and 111,000 women are still working at the age of 70 and over.

The National Pensioners’ Convention warns the majority are ‘ordinary, working-class people who are having to take jobs because they can’t make ends meet any other way.’