Osborne: You may have to work longer Chancellor George Osborne has said that millions of workers may have to work longer before they can retire. Delivering his Budget to MPs he said: "I can confirm today that there will be an automatic review of the state pension age to ensure it keeps pace with increases in longevity." That raises the possibility of ever long working lives to reduce the rising cost of an ageing population. Mr Osborne explained that the government will be publishing a White Paper on social care and will also consider proposals to manage future increases in the state pension age, beyond those already announced in this year's budget. The Chancellor also stated that he planned to maintain the same rate of reductions in departmental spending in the next review as had been done in this one. This would include savings in the welfare budget of £10 billion by 2016.