At a meeting hosted by the Trades Union Congress on Monday the Public and Commercial Services Union will call for a co-ordinated approach to fight plans to increase the pension age for the public sector from 60 to 65.

Both the Association of Teachers and Lecturers and Unison have said their members are considering industrial action, and the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers and the National Union of Teachers have not ruled it out.

Other options considered by the Government include an increase in teachers’

pension contributions, with benefits being cut if teachers are too ill to teach but can still do another job. In return, the Government is offering equal rights for unmarried partners and paying spouses’ pensions for life.