Your annuity income in retirement may now be decided by where you live. Four of the nation’s largest insurers are using locational information to predict the probable longevity of customers seeking a pension annuity.

Using data such as that provided by pensions consultancy Watson Wyatt, the insurers Aviva, Legal & General, Prudential and Canada Life are now looking first at your postcode, before calculating the annuity rate they will offer you.

If you live in an area where people are deemed to be more healthy, then you may live longer. As a result you may be ‘penalised’ for your good health, as you will probably draw your retirement income for longer. In fact, your retirement income from your annuity could be 3%-7% lower than for someone in a ‘less healthy’ postcode area, who is expected to die earlier.

Watson Wyatt’s research has shown that male longevity is highest in the SE of England, where the town of Montacute, Somerset leads with field with a male life expectancy of 90. At the other end of the scale, the shortest expectancy of 82 for a male in Kilbirnie, Ayrshire is three years short of the national average.

Retired workers in Kilbirnie may have worked in the town’s steelworks or flax mills, while Montacute is a non-industrial village in an agricultural area. While Kilbirnie has 13 fast food outlets for 8,000 people, the residents of Montacute attribute their longevity to their tradition of market gardens, and a diet rich in fresh fruit and vegetables.

Watson Wyatt predicts that insurers will be paying much closer attention to wealth and lifestyle data by postcode in the future, pointing out that the unexpected improvements in mortality over the past 20 years are now contributing to much of the financial strain experienced by pension funds and occupational pension schemes.

Europe’s current commitment is to cut emissions by just 20%, compared to 1990 levels.

Richer countries are responsible for the vast majority of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and must achieve the reductions by radical improvements in energy efficiency, an accelerated phase-out of coal and fossil fuels, and a dramatic shift towards renewable energies, according to Friends of the Earth.

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