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Financial education will become more significant for people in the UK as the global population ages, according to Sarah Harper.

Ms Harper, director of the University of Oxford Institute of Ageing, was speaking a Life Trust Foundation in London last week, and said that an ageing population along with low birth rates were having an impact not only on the UK but on places around the globe.

She added Latin America, Africa and Asia now had ageing populations with low birth rates that will have an impact on the UK's working pool

She told the audience at Somerset House in London: "In 20 years there will be more older people in Asia than younger people. This has implications - we have relied on people from Asia, Africa and Latin America to prop up our ageing population. In 20 years time those skilled migrants are not going to be there. This will result in the need to retain the skills of those between 50 and 70."

According to Ms Harper, financial planning will be at the core of educational citizenship.

She said: "If you speak to most 40-year-olds about how they are going to fund their retirement they will say that they have to think about the children, mortgage and paying for bills. But if you ask how are you going to plan for the second part of their life - then they think what are they going to do."

Lord Hunt of the Wirral, chairman of the Life Trust Foundation, warned that people living longer is very expensive. He urged industry to bolster the impact of increasing longevity.

He said: "Long-term thinking does not come naturally to many people, and this puts the onus on financial services providers and the wider collective to raise awareness of the impacts of increasing longevity."

Mike O'Brien, minister of state for pensions reform, said that longevity was challenging but is also an achievement of the 21st century.

He said: "By 2050, the number of pensioners will have risen by 50 per cent. Longer life times, lower fertility rates and increasing numbers of pensioners are fundamentally changing the nature of our society. Longevity impacts beyond pensions - it impacts every level of our society, in particular access to health, long term care and a whole range of long term care."

Other speakers at the even included Mike Lake, director general of Help the Aged; Stephen Hadrill, director general of the Association of British Insurers; and Charles McCreevy, European Commissioner for the internal market and services.